RWBY Journey: Chains of Glass
by Craxuan
Summary: Saving a fallen Queen has its consequences, but neither made it into Yang Xiao Long's head until it is too late. Embroiled within a dreadful storm of politics, Team RBYP must learn to survive the terrible mechanisms of both enemies and allies, or be drowned amidst a child's shattered dreams. This is the story after RWBY Journey: Devil Wind.
1. Chapter 1 - Here We Go Again!

**Author's Notes: I have finally decided on a title of my series - it will be called 'Journey' - inspired by the ending of Volume 3. It is a simple meaning, and yet it is something that everyone of us have to go through, long or short, pain or happiness. The third Journey of this series will of course be, as foreshadowed-quite-carelessly during the interlude 'Forty Days', Weiss Schnee's story. This fan fiction will be updated on a weekly basis if there aren't too many complications in my life.**

 **Stay sharp!**

 **EDIT: After writing a visioned summary of events, I realize I made some mistakes - probably verily because I tried to plow into this without a clear vision in my head - and edited some parts of the story so it'll actually make contextual sense. Much apologies for this.**

* * *

 **Journey III: Chains of Glass**

The first thing I heard when I woke up were the screams. Shrill, terrified screams that pierce the ears like a rapier. It was exhausting. I tried lifting a hand to shut them out, but the only thing that greeted me was physical, gut wrenching pain that dug into almost every part of my body. It hurts. Even my face - is it wrong to feel thankful that my throat is unhurt? - was not spared from the misery. What happened? Almost immediately the memories came beckoning to my call, and just as quickly I pushed them away in attempt to forget they ever exist, but it was futile. I remember everything. The signs, the darkness, the betrayal. _Your_ betrayal. Why? Why did you betray me? Why did you let me live? I can feel the crown on my head; its cold, hard frame clenching too tight to ever forget that I'm its eternal prisoner. You know what I have to do. You know what I _must_ do if I have even a single breath left in my body. And I will, for I am the ruler of this frigid land, High Queen of the only free Kingdom of Remnant, the one and only _rightful_ heiress of this accursed bloodline. I am Weiss Schnee.

I will claim what is mine, and yours, with blood.

 _Weiss Schnee, at the second weakest moment of her life._

* * *

It is a cold day in the mountains; frigid wind scratching against exposed skins and falling snow signalling the beginnings of a storm. Wrapped tightly within warm coats and cloaks, four heavily geared travelers trekked carefully along a crooked animal trail, believing that it would lead them towards a cave that will shelter them from the upcoming weather. Autumn had only scarcely start, and yet these lands are already showing signs of deepening their eternal color: White, white, and more white.

"... There. That is where we'll be staying for the night. With luck, our bear will be of the edible kind."

"That will be _great_ , because I'm _starving_ and it's been like what, twelve days since our last hot meal? Please let it not be an Ursa, please let it not be an Ursa -"

"Do not worry, my friend, for my sensors have picked up exactly one heat signal matching to that of an adult black bear! We will have a _feast_ tonight!"

"... Uh, yep. A great feast we'll be having... Yay."

Yang Xiao Long, her usually loose outfit switched for a warmer thick wool suit and double layer pants, fiddled nervously with her furry collar as she attempted to put some distance between herself and a certain sentient android. She didn't succeed. The second she took one step away an invisible thread coiled and tightened round her waist instantly and pulled her right back to where she was; right beside Penny. The blonde could only dip her head in depression. Just how long is this going to continue? From their backs Blake Belladonna watched curiously the exchanges between Yang Xiao Long and her virtual captor. Nearly two weeks ago they had an unfortunate run-in with a number of old enemies, and the most troublesome of them, Penny decided that she would 'observe Yang Xiao Long at her natural habitat' and had since stuck to the party like a gum beneath a shoe. She didn't know Penny personally and thus had no opinion about her presence, but Ruby Rose wanted nothing more than to cut down - or at the very least, ditch - this nuisance once and for all. However, it was an impossible task. Setting aside the fact that the android would take an insane amount of effort to defeat, she had also glued herself to Yang and refused to budge an inch no matter the moon shattering threats Ruby had thrown at her. Penny's veiled threat was obvious: try anything funny, and she wouldn't hesitate to use Yang as her leverage. Thus the strange and fragile symbiosis was established, and the five of them had traveled together ever since.

Penny wasn't the worst of their troubles, however. Part of the reason Blake could not keep her eyes off Penny was her association with her companions, yes, but her true concern was in fact the human shaped, wool wrapped thing carried firmly behind the android's back. And it wasn't 'just' shaped like a human either; it totally _is_ a living, breathing human, one who can, no pun intended, summon the might of an entire Kingdom and crush them with the ease of a single breath. Her thoughts turned dark. _I should have killed her. Be that as it may, there isn't enough room in this tiny world - and certainly not mine - to accommodate someone as dangerous as Weiss Schnee, the High Queen of Shiva._

"Belladonna. Get to work." Ruby ordered. Before she knew it, they had already arrived at the mouth of the boulder-wide cave they were about to set in. "Don't order me." Retorting instinctively at her would-be murderer if she wasn't immortal, she simultaneously ignored a cheerful, "Can I try? I've never killed a real bear before!" from Penny Blake gazed at the beginning bristles of a startled black bear and summoned her power. Everything that falls under the shadow is her domain, and the task was done as soon as it began with a cross-dimensional stab through the skull. Then, not even bothering to step her body towards the corpse, she began butchering it from afar startng by skinning its carcass, removing the fats, stripping its innards before finally extracting its meat by cutting them into many, cube-like pieces. Meanwhile, the rest of the party did their own thing while waiting, such as Ruby wasted no time in gathering dry branches and leaves from nearby trees. Within fifteen minutes' time the group had settled themselves comfortably around a warm fire while eating barbecued meat.

"... _Haahh,_ " Yang chewed at a piece of skewered cube, swallowed, and sighed like she was floating in heaven, "I'm full to the brim, and yet I can't stop myself. This is the best food I've had since _forever._ I didn't know you're such a good cook, Blake!"

"It's nothing. I just have a lot of experience preparing wild games while hunting Grimm around my home."

"Is it really that tasty?" Penny chewed (it was made clear during the first night that Penny apparently has a digestive system, even though it isn't very energy efficient) and made a pondering look, "How odd. I am certain that on a scale of 100, this food is 19 points lower than the normal meals my father cook for me, which in literal terms means very average."

Immediately Yang sneaked a peek at Blake's direction while making silencing motions with another hand, "Don't be rude!" she could hear the blonde hissing towards Penny, although personally Blake didn't mind it at all. The android was right; all she did is to grill the skewers until they're suitably well done, add in a pinch of salt, and let hunger and exhaustion do the rest of the seasoning.

"Yang, Penny, the two of you will be keeping watch for the night. Wake me up after 4 hours. I'm going to bed."

A trail of red petals fluttered by the campfire, and when the gang came to Ruby Rose had already lied down facing the wall with her body wrapped completely inside her own cloak. The blonde frowned as she watched the evenly breathing form. It was a clear sign as any that her friend had succumbed to her well used silence again, and yet being the most forward person of the group Yang would not accept it without a fight,

"Ruby? Are you feeling alright?"

"... I'm fine."

"Then come sit with us! It's only seven thirty and we haven't even finished the bear yet!"

"Yang," Ruby's sudden raised voice drew everyone's attention, "There's someone else you should be talking to. See you in the morning."

"Huuuh?"

The plastic handle of her fork bent abruptly, and Blake cast a shocked look towards the back of the quiet redhead. _It can't be, how did she...? Dammit, s_ he's _sharper than I thought._ She felt like defying expectations and just keep quiet for the rest of the night, but in the end Blake sighed and gave in to more practical reasonings. _She wants me to talk? Fine, I'll do just that._

"She's talking about me."

Yang turned around to face her with a question mark, "Blake?"

The nightshade sucked in a deep breath, and after a gathering of wits - _huh, since when did it become this hard to converse? -_ cut to the chase immediately, "We need to talk – we need to _decide_ on what we want to do with our 'queen', tonight."

The blonde's eyes darted immediately towards the other person leaned against the wall, and back. Wrapped within her her cloak with snow white hair spilled across her shoulders, Weiss Schnee breathed peacefully and slept without a care for the discussion of her survival, "I think I know what you're going to say, but go on."

Blake said, "We've fed her and taken care of her wounds for twelve days straight. Even though she hasn't woken up yet, she's basically in stable condition. So I suggest that we part ways with her now. We are only fifteen miles away from Edmonton (a border settlement of Shiva), and I can just drop her off at a police station or a hospital."

The blonde closed her eyes for a moment before looking at her seriously, "Blake... You know about the coup, don't you?"

Exactly two weeks ago, a monumental disaster had taken place at the capital of Shiva Kingdom. The official statement was that, due to a number of capital offenses such as the Independence Day mass murder, the assassinations of multiple Shiva High Council officials _and_ Atlas Ambassador Mr. Fredric Ironwood, treason through the invitation of Grimm leading to the destruction of multiple border towns so on and so on; the High Council of Shiva had unanimously agreed that the High Queen was no longer fit to rule and that they would withhold governmental power until a new governing system can be decided. To put it concise a coup d'état happened, and Weiss Schnee, once the most beloved angel of her Kingdom, had fallen from grace and hunted to the point that she nearly perished by their hands.

The dark-haired woman nodded with an even more serious expression, "Who doesn't? The whole Remnant is talking about this. All the more reason to di... let her go while we can."

"If we do that we'll be sending her to her death."

"So? I have to admit I don't really care about these supposed 'atrocities', but even so have you heard what she's done? She had it coming." _Just like me._ "We've done our best - in fact, we've done far more than she deserves. We've treated her wounds even though she attacked us; we've fed her and kept her safe while risking our own lives in the process. _We don't owe her anything_. So, Yang... let's leave her already."

The blonde let out a sigh and chugged down water from a bottle by her side. Then she stared at Blake again and nodded one sharply, "Yeah, sure. I agree with you."

For a second Blake opened her mouth to argue, but then her mind processed the reply and she looked taken aback, "You... agree with me? You're okay with leaving her behind?"

Yang shook her head her with a playful _tsk_ while wagging a finger, "Look Blake. I'm not sure what you think of me, but I'm not actually stupid you know. I won't put our team in danger just to save a stranger's life."

The nightshade wouldn't necessarily agree they are a band of like-minded individuals, much less a _team,_ but she digressed, "I mean - of course. That's great. I'm glad you agree. So, I'll drop her off at Edmonton then?"

"For now? Nowhere."

"What?"

"We are not leaving her. Not now." Yang said casually. "Yang -" the _katana_ wielder felt her blood boil up in an instant, but Yang interjected before she could protest,

"Let me explain first, okay? So first, it's too dangerous. You can't carry another person in your Shadow Dimension, can you? It'll be incredibly risky even for you to infiltrate past their guard and drop Weiss without being caught. Two, even if you did manage without leaving behind a trace, her reappearance is definitely going to provoke a huge reaction from the two Kingdoms. If we think about it logically, they will most likely cease their search activities and put their attention onto deciding Weiss' fate, but... something tell me that things aren't as simple as they seem."

"... You worried that it might cause something we didn't expect? Maybe cause a threat we couldn't see coming?"

Yang nodded, "You've said it yourself. Mysterious assassinations, civilian massacres, Grimm invasions so on and so on, all the way back to _4 months ago_. Somehow Shiva - and I'll bet my gauntlets that Atlas' in it as well - has managed to keep all these under wraps from the entire world until last week. You can give me a million dollars and I won't believe for a second there isn't a pile of dungberg conspiracies hidden behind these stinking mess. We really shouldn't so carelessly decide what to do with Weiss until the bigger picture becomes clearer."

"But we don't _have_ to shoulder that risk in the first place!" Blake argued immediately, "Obviously Weiss Schnee is a continent level time bomb, so the smartest thing to do is to ditch her asap! Fine, let's not leave her at Edmonton - we'll leave her here. At this cave. Her Aura's strong enough to sustain her for a week. Then all of us will be safe!"

"It wouldn't make a difference, kitten. We are still a week away from passing through this controlled Dead Zone, and the search network will probably find her here by tomorrow. In that case, best we carry her along until we can be sure we can escape whatever trouble comes after."

"Yang, _ugh,_ " Blake scratched her bow in frustration, "Look, I understand your explanation, but - listen. Weiss Schnee, is trouble. We, don't want any trouble. Even if your speculation is sound, it is just as likely that this 'trouble' won't affect us. No matter how you weigh it, it's just _safer_ to leave her while we can!"

"If I lived my life that way, you would already be dead."

Blake shuddered. It wasn't meant for her ears; something the blonde muttered under her breath with an indistinguishable tone, but she caught it anyway with her inhuman, enhanced hearing, "... What?"

The blonde broke out of her temporary reverie and continued, not noticing the paling of her cheeks,

"Here's my final reason, Blake, and I will admit that it's a selfish one: I don't want to put someone I saved in danger, especially when the person herself isn't even conscious to realize it. It seems so... wrong. If Weiss Schnee is awake right now and she chooses to surrender herself, then that is her choice and I won't stop her. But to just leave her like this, knowing what her Kingdom would most likely do to her - what difference would it make than to kill her with my own hands? I can't ."

She could feel a strange heat gathering inside her head until it hurts; her fingers balling into fists so tight it they could break. She said flatly, "So. All this boils down to is that _you,_ want to give her a choice."

Yang glanced up worriedly at the sudden steeliness in her voice, "... Yeah."

"She lost her throne, her people hates her, she had to run away from her own country and her whole life is _ruined_ _and she deserves it_ for all the sins she has committed, and you want to give her a _choice_. Do you know why she isn't waking up? Because she couldn't stand the horrible reality sticking her in the face, and even if she could she knows that will most likely be killed or spend the rest of her life a fugitive. To suffer or to die. What a great conscience you have there, Yang! Perhaps you've never thought that maybe, just maybe, she _doesn't want_ to have this _choice?_ "

Blake was breathing hard and shaking uncontrollably at the end of the outburst. At the corner, Ruby shuffled a little in her sleep. Penny lost her signature smile and became void of any expression. Weiss Schnee continued to slumber without a care for the world, and Yang... Yang just looked sad. She had never seen her this sad and hurt even when she was talking about her past.

"Blake... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I -"

"Enough. You made up your mind, and I'm just the follower. Do whatever you want." She stood up abruptly from her seat and headed towards the cave mouth. Yang tried to follow her, but immediately she stopped the blonde with the coldest tone she could muster, " _Don't._ I... I need some time. Alone."

She disappeared into the dark.

* * *

"Ha - ha _choo_! Uuunghh, I should've worn an extra shirt. Or five."

"You won't be able to fight well then - There you go, take care not to spill."

"Finally! Thanks Pyrrha!"

A man and a woman sat by a fire in the middle of the night, drinking hot coca underneath a leafless tree. The tall blond with messy hair wore a white chestplate and shoulder armor on the top and blue slacks at the bottom. Coupled with a bland sword strapped to the left of his waist, Jaune Arc looked the perfect image of a strong generic melee warrior, if he hadn't wrapped himself inside a thick blanket and shaking like a leaf that is.

On the other hand, the woman to his side looked far more reliable. She had noble red hair tied in a ponytail, green eyes and thin lips. Hidden beneath her cloak is a two piece, strapless leather armor with a thin sheets of metal sewn on the inside, to provide protection while maintaining the high mobility of its wearer. Her weapon, a javelin and bronze shield were strapped to the back in the open for ease of use, and perhaps a warning against predators who might see them as potential preys. After all, beyond the safety of the walls, every danger they encounter could very well be life threatening.

"I'm starting to regret undertaking this mission. It's been ten days since we tracked down these criminals, and we haven't even seen their shadows anywhere at all! Are they really out here?" Jaune Arc mumbled from within his comfy blanket.

Pyrrha smiled gently at her partner, "We found their campfire remains, didn't we? While they are certainly sneakier than the mission ranking suggests, I'm sure we'll catch up to them pretty soon."

"... Pyrrha, I don't mean to sound defeatist, but are you sure you don't want to give up on this mission?" a weak sounding question suddenly fell out of Jaune's mouth, and his red headed friend stared at him with surprise, "Of course not! We're definitely going to make this a success, aren't we?"

"From the remains we found two days ago, we deduced that their group has at least three or four people, right?" the blond mouthed his speculation slowly, "And from the reports we know that these criminals are good enough to beat the crap out of an Atlas infantry squad. Not that you can't do that yourself and without breaking a sweat even, but... I'm worried. What if we can't beat them? What if I... drag you down?"

The red head let loose a soft sigh before saying, "You are not dragging me down, Jaune. You are as strong as any Huntsman in the Academy, if not better. Be confident about yourself!"

For a second the blond looked like he wanted to argue, but he changed his mind at the last second before looking away, "I guess. Still, it doesn't change the fact that we're outnumbered."

Pyrrha mused for a second before nodding, "You're not wrong. If things turn out more dangerous than we can handle, then we definitely should turn back and report back to the Professor... Remember the first rule of being a Huntsmen? Safety is always the first priority."

"… Of course. Would be a shame if my handsome face gets beaten in, yeah?" Jaune responded with a toothy grin on his face. The girl understood that it was his way of hiding his insecurities, but she revealed nothing and grinned right back with a firm slap on his shoulder,

"Not on my watch, pretty boy. Now go get some sleep. I'll stand the night."

"Hey, my cocoa! Aw, man!"

Ignoring her partner's protest, Pyrrha stood up and laid herself behind a large tree trunk overseeing their camp and stared into the darkness. Then, with a soft tone that no one but herself could hear, she whispered,

"I'll protect you."


	2. Chapter 2 - Of Bird Droppings

**Author's Note: I'm on vacation, and it's hard getting Wifi here. This chapter was actually done a week ago, but difficult circumstances prevented me from posting it. Much apologies.**

* * *

Morning arrived quickly, and at 7 am sharp the gang had tidied up their belongings and readied themselves to leave. Being the loyal thrash cleaner ("... These self depreciating musings are getting old.") Yang Xiao Long made sure to scatter the charred wood and bury the thrash, to which Penny expressed great curiosity about the impracticality behind burying non-degradable plastic materials but was ignored entirely. Blake is gone, Weiss is also gone in a different sense. As for Ruby, she is... the usual. Quiet and reserved, trying to get a banter out of the girl was like prying a bone from a dog. Still, she talked. It was a topic about the weather, supply count and counter measures against search parties, but still. When everything had been said and done, Yang turned towards Ruby and waited for the departure signal. The petite girl frowned as she picked up the body count,

"Where's Belladonna?"

"Well, she... left." Upon noticing the corners of Ruby's mouth curling upwards she quickly added, "Not the permanent kind, mind you. She'll come back once she calms down. Weren't you listening to us last night?" And now they turned upside down. Sis has been getting a lot more expressive lately.

"And I said that I was going to bed, didn't I? What happened?"

"... You're not joking, are you? Never mind, don't answer that," Yang let out a sigh, "We disagreed with each other. In general, I thought it would be better to take Weiss Schnee with us until she wakes up, and Blake wants to leave her. You can guess the rest."

Ruby narrowed her eyes and appeared to say something, but in the end she held back and looked towards the distant mountains, "If that is your choice."

"... You could say no, you know."

"Then what was the point in letting the two of you argue? No, I am not going to break my own word." The former Executioner strode with wide steps out of the cave abruptly, and Yang quickly chased after her with Penny tailing behind. Without looking back, Ruby asked, "Can you make me a promise, Yang?"

"What is it?"

"Weiss Schnee is strange. I don't think you realize how strange it is, and I do not mean to talk about it now as it might influence your decision. But since you've decided to take her with us I expect that we will run into many difficulties, perhaps some beyond our control. And when that time comes... can you promise me that you will take responsibility and do what is right?"

It was something she had seen coming since quite some time ago, but still she couldn't help but feel a chill running down her back. Obviously, Ruby had given her a great amount of trust; before they reconciled the girl would have acted independently without considering her choices at all. It was only right that she returned it as well. But at the same time, from the bottom of her heart, this was one responsibility that she wished she would never need to take - the responsibility of taking another person's life.

"Damn, Ruby, isn't this a little heavy to bring up during a morning?"

"Sorry."

Yang repinned the cloak on her shoulders while sighing, "Saying sorry only makes it worse, big sis. No, what am I saying? This isn't your fault to begin with... Can you give me some time?"

Ruby sighed, "Here we go again. One day you'll take an hour just to figure out what jam to put on bread."

The blonde blustered with pink cheeks, "What! C'mon, this and that is on a completely different scale! I'm not _that_ indecisive!... _Am I? Shit, sure I've been deferring a lot to the team lately, and yeah everyone around me is so much smarter I never really need to present myself, but I'm the dragon's daughter, dammit! I'm -_ "

"Don't take too long."

"... I know."

The trio's backs disappeared behind the falling snow.

* * *

 _She failed. Either her enemy had incredible luck, or maybe she was just incredibly unlucky. Regardless, her killing strike had missed the sleeping enemy at the final second, and after exchanging a few more blows she realized that she was no match against her underneath the bright sun. It was yet another cruel reminder that she was no longer human._

 _"Kgh!"_

 _"This is disappointing. You seem much weaker in daylight. Are you a Possession Type Demon?"_

 _"What are you - ngh - talking about!"_

 _Ruby Rose. A young girl whose childish appearance easily inspires innocence and protectiveness, and yet when she reveals her true strength even a monster could only cower in fear. But she would not. Even with a scythe clutched to her neck Blake Belladonna continued to glare upwards at a cool-looking Ruby like she would swallow her whole._

 _But the girl continued talking as if she didn't sense her murderous intent, "Possession Type Demon; a former life-form who has been infected, possessed, corrupted or transformed by a Higher Grimm or a Source of Darkness into a monster. Their powers are terrifying when a certain condition is met, but otherwise they become severely weakened and in some cases even weaker than their former self. You sound like you fit the criteria, don't you?"_

 _Blake seethed, "And what if I do?"_

 _"Interesting. After regrowing pretty much an entire body, you did not lose even a bit of your human consciousness... but you really should learn when to zip a mouth shut."_

 _The blade sank just a millimeter deeper into her neck; enough to draw crimson blood from pale white skin, but Blake wasn't moved in the slightest. What does a neigh immortal creature have to fear from such a shallow wound? Her expression inscrutable, Ruby Rose replied,_

 _"I should kill you."_

 _Blake snarled, "What are you waiting for then? Do it!"_

 _The blade retracted a millimeter away, "But I can't. Made a promise to my partner; the idiot lying over there like a log. I think it won't look too good if I bite my words this early."_

 _Blake didn't look. She knew exactly who the girl was referring too; it was hard not to notice when the first thing you woke up to was a face full of golden, flaming hair. So?_

" _How nice of you to pretend that you care about anyone but yourself." Blake sneered disdainfully. She could feel a jitter down her stamped spine, but it quickly relaxed as Ruby spoke up again,_

" _I just thought you should know that my partner was there at the scene where you killed a town guard. You are familiar with the name May Binder? Somehow someway she managed to persuade the softhearted idiot to protect you. Then again I guess I am an idiot as well, to be persuaded by Yang," the young girl chided herself whimsically, before turning serious in a sudden, "But I'm warning you. Give me a reason; even a poor one, and I won't hesitate to end you right here."_

 _But Blake wasn't listening. The moment Ruby mentioned the name 'May' her mind had gone completely blank. She remembered her well. Elliot's annoying sister; a relentless troublemaker who wouldn't stop butting heads with her no matter where she went, especially when the matter involved Elliot. How crazy does one has to be to charge into a drug den without knowing any sort of self defense? Dealing with her was exasperating at best at hair tearing at worst. She was a pain in the ass. She disliked her. She -_

 _\- She loved her. She was her friend._

" _Is… Is May well?"_

"… _I wouldn't know. I've never met her."_

" _How about the town? Is everything -"_

" _I wouldn't know." Ruby cut her off with a tinge of impatience, "If you're so concerned, why don't you go back and see for yourself?"_

" _I..."_

 _She wanted to. She wanted to go back so, so much._

" _I can't. Don't you understand? It's... it's gone. Now. Forever."_

 _Blake felt pathetic when she said that. She was ready to be shamed by Ruby, to be humiliated so horribly that she would cut her own head before she would listen to those words, but surprisingly, the girl kept silent. For the first time, the unbridled discrimination and disgust her enemy had taken against her since the beginning was replaced with something more… acclimating. She didn't understand it. She didn't care to anyway._

 _Blake sucked in a deep breath to clear her thoughts, "That is not a good enough reason."_

" _What?"_

" _You know what I am; what I have become. After all the things I've done, I'm sure that even May won't deny that it is better to rid me from this earth. Your partner doesn't even know me. So why, against all rational sense, does she want to keep me alive?"_

 _Abruptly, the pressure pressing against her disappeared. All of it. It took Blake a while to realize that the stinging coldness on her neck was gone, and even more to believe that it wasn't a cruel trick intent on making her suffer. Still, she immediately leaped away and widened the distance between herself and Ruby Rose. Under her watchful gaze, the young girl casually walked up to her sleeping partner and plopped right on top of her back. The blonde shuffled uncomfortably as if experiencing a nightmare, and she could hear, but not decipher as the girl whispered something inscrutable to the blonde before directing burning silver eyes against her own,_

" _Tell me, Belladonna - do you believe in your own humanity?"_

* * *

Blake opened her eyes. Before she knew it the sun hung tall above the horizon, and there was mild discomfort where her skin was exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time. She couldn't remember the last time she dozed off on her feet, much less while standing on a tree branch fifty meters off the ground. She picked a leaf from her shoulders and let it float away from her fingertips. In denial she might be, but there was no doubt that last night's talk had affected her far more than she would admit. A choice, she said. What a joke. _Why am I troubled by this? A hypocrite and a psychopath; like I give a damn about any of them._ She tried to convince herself, _remember why you're here. Remember what you_ are _. Once they've proven themselves useless, they are going to pay for all the humiliation they've put you through with death. And then..._

 _And then... what?_

A frustrated sigh escaping her lips, the catlike Huntress shook away jumbled thoughts and attuned her senses towards north. She better catch up. Neither Ruby nor Penny would wait for her (Yang: Why do I feel depressed all of the sudden?) if she was left behind, and she still had too many question - and revenge, she had to remind herself for some reason - only this strange group might answer.

Golden eyes tracing a zigzag path across snowed foliage, Blake crouched down before bounding lightning fast towards a faraway tree, and another, and another. The occasional snow did nothing to slow her. Utilizing all four limbs and occasionally Gambol Shroud to achieve maximum efficiency, the speed she was travelling at would make a helicopter pilot riot. The key to freerunning Huntress style is to stay airborne more often than not, and it is a skill Blake take to better than a fish in water. She should catch up to the half an hour lag in no time at all.

"... hey!..."

Braking used to be a problem of hooking the right branch; now it was simply a matter of dropping into the closest pool of shadow. Then, from the shadow cast beneath a lower tree branch Blake poked an ear out from the alternate dimension and listened in closely at the pair of man and woman walking below her.

A nasally male voice said excitedly, "These footsteps look like they're only an hour old! We caught up to them!"

He was answered by a steadier, more professional female tone, "I believe so. But we have to be careful. It's strange that these people had managed to avoid capture even though they don't bother to cover their tracks. Also, I wonder about this strange..." Blake guessed that the woman was shaking her head or gesturing something similar, "Never mind. Anyway, let us not be careless and take this one step at a time."

"Y-yeah. Of course. A-also, the plan -"

"It looks like there are three of them, so you take one while I handle the other two. If anything goes wrong, shout 'split' and we'll run at a different direction from each other and meet up at the last resting spot. Did I get that right?"

"As precise as a dictionary, Pyrrha! Alright, let's get these bastards and so we can pass this god damn exam!"

" _Manners,_ Jaune!"

Blake's eyebrows furrowed as she pulled back into the shadows. If she wasn't mistaken, these tracks belong to none other than their group. Because Penny boasted a cloaking device that could hide themselves - including traces such as footsteps, disturbed foliage and so on - and trick even the most sophisticated detector within a 1 kilometer range, Ruby as the leader of the group had decided to trade safety for speed and not clean up their tracks. While it had worked thus far, allowing them to outpace the search web - _and just barely too. Weiss Schnee sure knows how to piss off the people around her -_ far enough that their tracks, while suspicious, would not draw unneeded attention as long as they weren't caught - it wasn't uncommon to find Huntsmen or nomads passing by the area.

Apparently the decision had finally backfired on them, although admittedly it was more due to beginner's luck than anything. From their attitude and posture alone Blake immediately deduced that these people are students from a Huntsman Academy, and so green that this was probably the first time they stepped out into the world without any supervision. At the moment she didn't know why they're pursuing them - for a second she worried that they might be looking for Weiss Schnee, but then they absolutely wouldn't have traveled without a full team and professor; not to mention that they don't look like students of Atlas or Shiva's Academies. She remembered those people to be stuck-ups who are so enamored with their uniforms, anything less is like wearing a pajamas in public. So, if they're not local students, then could they be from Vytal? Beacon Academy maybe? She supposed she'll know if she continued to listen to them.

But she shouldn't be careless. Staring - or should she say sensing the Huntsmen's presence from behind the cover of a dimension, because one technically couldn't see anything in the realm of shadows - at the trackers moving ahead from her, Blake mulled over the idea of ambushing them before rejecting it immediately. The best would be to kill them with a single strike each and hide the bodies in her dimension, but that was assuming she had the skills to ignore the potential risks of failure. To attack without even the slightest information on her opponents' - she at least needed to know what her opponents' Semblance are - is just foolhardy. Not to mention that - while she would never admit it in the open - Ruby wasn't wrong in deducing that she was much weaker during daytime, and she was still getting used to her new body (her old body was destroyed by Ruby before she regrew a new one, but even though it appeared identical they're not the same). It was not a risk worth taking. No, the best course of action would be -

* * *

"We've got company. _Oooh I used a trope!_ Did I sound cool, Yang? Did I?"

They were halfway up the slippery slope of a hill when the party of four came to an abrupt halt. Ruby frowned and asked, "How many?"

"Just two, about - which unit of measurement do you prefer? Meter? - 600 meters at our seven. My radar also picked up Blake earlier, but she most likely hid into her 'Shadow Dimension' and I lost her signal. She's most likely tracking our pursuers."

"Hmm." The young girl pursed her lips while staring at the distance, "I wonder why and how they're following us. I thought you said your cloak would hide our tracks perfectly."

The green dressed android puffed in dissatisfaction, "It should! I suspect that a Semblance is in the working, but until I can observe the target more directly I would not be able to fix the flaw in my system."

Yang said with a tinge of excitement and a raised fist, "Well, what are we waiting for then? Let's take them out!"

Ruby looked at her with surprise, "What happened to the koala in you?"

Yang pretended she didn't just call her a peace loving idiot and said, "It's probably rogue, or maybe we got unlucky and some strays decided that our tracks are worth chasing. At any rate they can't be friendly, and while I _am_ up to resolve this dilemma with a simple chat, uh," the blonde looked pointedly at her and Penny; making her underlying meaning decidedly obvious, "Let's just say violence is the better option this time. No offense, but I don't want to have to explain shit when the two of you just reset all my efforts into the negatives."

"Okay." Ruby was neither an indecisive person nor one to shy away from a fight, so she laid down her order immediately, "Penny, maintain the cloak field so we don't alert them and hide somewhere safe. We cannot expose the Schnee no matter what. Yang, you come with me."

"You don't order me, Ruby. I want to fight too!" Penny folded her arms and said with a raised chin. Ruby looked at her partner,

"Yang."

"Haah... Penny, please?"

"Aye aye ma'am! I will protect Weiss Schnee until the end of time!"

"… Why the sudden pirate accent?"

Ruby tightened her hood around her head and walked ahead without waiting for the bantering duo. Her head was already calculating the best location to confront the enemy; the fastest way to knock them out without revealing too much information. After shooing Penny off to the distance Yang finally caught up with her as she wrapped an uncomfortably weighty, yet oddly warming arm around her shoulders and said,

"So, what do we do? You, me, double team or bait in or...?"

Ruby shook her head, "It's impossible to tell until we meet our opponents."

"Oh. Yeah, I should've known," the blonde nodded sharply before lifting a finger beside Ruby's cheek, "Also, one more thing. Preferably, you know, if we take them out, I think we shouldn't -"

"I won't kill them," the young girl rolled her eyes at a grinning Yang before finally bumping the arm off her shoulders, "Do you know how hard it is to dispose a body? If Belladonna would help it will be a simpler task, but any 'disappearances' at this time is going to draw attention like a lighthouse. No, we'll just beat them real hard and convince them we're not who they're looking for. One way or another."

"... There are multiple things I wanna comment about your line of thought, but I'll happily keep my mouth shut," the blonde nodded satisfyingly before slamming her fists into one, "Oh, one last thing, and I swear it's the last: can I be the striker? I've been itching to fight someone _that's not you_ and -"

"Is it just me, or are you suggesting that we fight them head on?"

"Well, duh?"

"Well, no, because that would be wasted opportunity. Why chase a predator, when you can just lure it to its demise?" A devious smile crept up the former Executioner's features as she ignored the eye rolls Yang was throwing at the side, "And I have just the idea..."

* * *

Slowly but steadily, Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc tracked the footsteps and made their way through the frosted shrubbery, ready to raise their arms at a moment's notice. Despite the constant wind blowing at her ears she noticed that their surroundings were unusually quiet, and so every step taken was done with much patience and precaution. The red head sneaked a look at her partner, who although looked perfectly calm failed to suppress a shiver down his arm.

Both Pyrrha and Jaune are first year students studying at the prestigious Huntsmen Academy named Beacon, and they are now taking their final exam in order to properly ascend to second year (failing would result in grade retention). In a twist that befitted professor Glynda Goodwitch's Spartan-style educational ideology, not only the teams were suddenly broken apart into individuals, they were also paired randomly with another stranger from a different team. They were given 3 days to work out a rapport before choosing to complete one mission (ranked from F to S) within 2 months time.

If it wasn't for this exam, the two of them would likely never have known each other. She was top graduate from Sanctum, 4 times champion of the Mistral Tournament and renowned star Huntress on the rise. On the other hand Jaune Arc was literally a nobody. He was neither spectacular nor impressive, and the only account she ever heard of him was a bullying incident with Cardin Winchester. It was probably why he was acting boastful and all macho-like when they first met, until his teammates showed him a Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes cereal box with her face on it and deflated his ego like a balloon. It wasn't until later that night he finally worked up the courage to ask her out for a sparring session, but he was so nervous that... well... he didn't stab himself in the foot anymore so that's an improvement, right?

"Hey, Pyrrha." the blond suddenly called out to her.

It was a bad idea to talk so close to the enemy - _we can't be more than a hundred paces away now -_ but still she answered kindly, "Yes, Jaune?"

"Ah, never mind, it's nothing. Probably just my imagination."

This time she came to a full stop and looked at him squarely, "It's okay, Jaune. Please, did you notice something? What is it?"

"Aah, erm, it's probably something stupid but uh," Jaune scratched his hair irritably before pointing at a low hanging branch just above their heads, "Do you see that bird nest up there?"

"I see it." In fact she already saw it when they were about three hundred paces away, "Is there something wrong?"

The Huntsman began, "When I was younger, my sis would drag me to the neighbor's fruit farm so she could uh, steal some fruits. Apples, oranges, bananas; you name it, they have it. While I wait at the bottom, she would climb the trees like a monkey and drop them right into my arms."

"Jaune, the point?"

"I'm getting there. Very often she would run into some bird nests and take those eggs as well, and my point is, that bird nest is not right." Jaune folded his arms with an odd confidence that she had never seen before from the blond. That would've been a good thing, if only she actually understood a word of what he was saying,

"I'm really sorry, but I still don't understand."

"Like I said, birds don't build their nests like that," he pointed again at the nest, and this time Pyrrha stared at it very, very closely, "See the way it's hanging off the soft end of the branch? That's way too unstable. No birds worth their salt would choose such a flimsy spot to build their home; even a small gust of wind could blow it right off the -"

As if confirming his words, the fragile grass cup swayed unsteadily to a sudden drift before tipping over completely. Two little white objects fell out from the nest, and obeying his long honed instincts Jaune Arc leaned forward to catch them in his hands, just like he used to when he was a kid. Pyrrha on the other hand, had a completely different reaction as she recognized in horror what they were and shouted,

"GET DOWN!"

* * *

The explosions were powerful enough that even hiding behind a tree twenty feet away from the blast site, Yang could feel the shockwaves riding past her body. To her side a red shadow immediately exploded out of the cover as she followed one step behind. This was not because this was how Ruby setup their charge; they were supposed to maintain the same pace and lead a two-pronged attack; but because she was stunned speechless by Ruby's absolutely-not-deadly trap and faltered for a second,

"What the _hell_ , Ruby! I thought you said we're not going to kill them!"

"It won't. The charge is just powerful enough to knock out a veteran Huntsman through their Aura. _"_

"Doesn't that mean a lesser person would have their heads blown off the shoulders!? _Yaaah!_ "

Ruby was already swinging her scythe through the smoke when she answered her, and not to be outpaced Yang immediately followed up with a shotgun shell and war cry of her own. Ruby's swing connected solidly with a resounding _thunk –_ a bronze shield, Yang thought immediately as she caught glimpses through the smoke -but the defender immediately used the momentum to push both herself and her partner out of range, narrowly dodging her shot at the same time. She could hear the woman with red hair shouting,

"Jaune! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!"

"You deal with the blonde! I'll -"

Ruby gave the Huntress no time to finish as she swung her crimson scythe like a bolt of lightning at the woman's head, forcing her to barely push Jaune away in time before suffering the full brunt of the blow with her shield. Looking disoriented but furious for his partner's safety, the young man looked like he was about to disobey his orders and double team Ruby instead, but of course Yang wouldn't let that her punch Yang sent a powerful right hook slamming dead center of the young man's unfolding shield, causing him to stagger backwards and even roll repeatedly across the floor before finally coming to a full stop. _Uh, I'm pretty sure I didn't punch_ that _hard, but then again he looks weak. I'll end this quickly._ Slowly she walked towards the obviously frightened Huntsman with a gentle coo,

"Real sorry man, but you definitely stepped on the wrong foot today. So just go down quickly and save all of us some trouble, okay?"

* * *

One, four, two. In the span of 3 seconds Ruby had struck 7 times at her enemy, alternating between swings, slashes and even trick shots mixed in between her combos. But they were ineffective. A single blade and shield seemed like such weak weapons against the giant scythe that is Crescent Rose, but when the red haired Huntress blocked, deflected, dodged and even countered with a surprise javelin transformation that nearly took half her cheek, Ruby finally recognized that her enemy was no common enemy. Weaving in between deadly steel, the skillful Huntress swung her shield like a hammer to put some distance Ruby and herself before shouting,

"Who are you? Why are you attacking us?"

"That is _our_ question. Why are you following us? Don't you know that it's dangerous to follow a nomad's trail, especially when traversing a Dead Zone? It's bad enough this place is full of Grimm, and you even ruined our failsafe!" Seeing that the red haired woman was trying to pull the battle towards Yang's direction, Ruby immediately stopped her with a side step and bodily swing at the torso, forcing the woman to dance away.

"I'm sorry! Obviously we're not the Grimm, so if you would stop -"

"Of course not. You're worse than Grimm – you're _bandits._ "

"What? We are _not_ -"

"You've been following us since last week, haven't you?" it was of course a blind guess, but the evident shock on the Huntress' face said enough, "Don't even pretend you're not; if you were good people simply looking for safe passage you would've gone to Shiva or Atlas, but you're here. So I say that we're perfectly entitled to defend ourselves by taking both of you, _down_."

The way she talked; Ruby realized immediately that this warrior girl was a freshie who had never experienced the world beyond the walls, and so she lied and exploited that weakness ruthlessly. Normally she could never be so smooth, but thanks to Yang ("I need to stop breaking the 4th wall, but GOD DAMMIT RUBY. STOP MAKING IT SOUND LIKE I'M CORRUPTING YOU!") the lie was apparently convincing enough that the conviction behind those emerald eyes wavered for just a second. It was enough for Ruby to feign into her blind spot, slap the head of Crescent Rose right at her opponent's wrist, and send her xyphos flying far away into the trees. The victor was set. Although neither combatant had revealed their Semblances yet, Ruby was confident that she could take down this struggling Huntress within the minute.

That was when a shout broke through the air,

"Why are listening to the enemy, Pyrrha? ARGH!"

"Jaune!"

"... Yang!"

Ruby shouted to her partner while speeding up her scythe into a blur. Just tens of meters away from her duel, Yang was beating the living crap out of the blond whose fighting capabilities was the exact opposite of his partner's, but somehow he held on because of his shield and range advantage of his weapon. Yang heard her call and tried her best to shut him up as quickly as possible, but somehow through the rain of punches he still managed to spat out a bellow,

"If we really did follow the wrong person then we'll make amends for our transgression, but what if we're right? What if they're lying to us? She says that no good people will come down this road, well that applies to them as well! So let's take them down first, and ask questions later!"

"Ho ho, bold words, but – whoa! You almost cut my hair, you bloody cockroach! _Just go down already!_ "

"Never! Hiya!"

On another day Ruby might be able to appreciate the incredibly childish exchange as blackmail material, but right now she was far more concerned about the renewed strength in the bronze warrioress' limbs. Left with only her golden brown shield, Pyrrha had no choice but to weather the worst of the attacks with it alone and occasionally even with her weaponless arm; a fact that Ruby made no disguise to exploit as much as possible. And yet something was different. Ruby cleaved down and up in a V-shape to cut off either one of her enemy's limbs, but to her surprise she missed her opponent. _That's odd. I was sure I had it._ Shaking it away as a miscalculation, Ruby swung yet again in a wide arc, attempting to trick the woman into thinking that she was slashing from the side, when in fact she had adjusted her blade's angle to cleave in from the back. But again the red head exceeded expectations by planting her shield directly in the way of the scythe's handle, and the chosen spot so perfect that her clamping blade fell short just a centimeter from dismembering her enemy. Ruby's face darkened. _No way that is a coincidence. How is she doing this?_ As Pyrrha slid her shield forwards to slice off Ruby's fingers, the young girl backed away quickly with a face of deep frown and confusion. Unless she was mistaken, being one arm down had only made her opponent _stronger._ It made no logical sense; she had to be missing something.

Pyrrha wasn't going to let this opportunity go. Bending her arm backwards until her muscles bulged, she abruptly flung her shield out in a straight line towards Ruby's head while turning 360 degrees to run towards her fallen blade. While the throw was premeditated, the speed at which it traveled exceeded Ruby's expectations and forced her to duck the blow instead of batting it off course. After all, one wrong move and it could've sliced sniper scythe in half! But naturally Ruby wasn't about to let Pyrrha go this easily, and with her posture already bent she immediately triggered five shots in a row to boost herself towards the Huntress like a rocket. The distance between them wasn't large to begin with, and with a supreme speed advantage Ruby easily caught up to Pyrrha way before the latter could get to her xiphos. It was the end of their little parade. Ruby brought her sniper scythe forward to block directly in front of Pyrrha's path, and -

"Huh!?"

Ruby's instincts are top-notch, but it could only do so much against the unpredictable. A shield with missing edges orbiting in so tightly and faster than even her running speed was definitely out of her expectations, and Ruby dropped herself flat on the ground just in time to duck the returning shield slicing past the top of her head. It was at that moment Pyrrha suddenly skidded to a full stop and lifted her right arm, and a golden red sword flew out of nowhere to be caught within Pyrrha's grip in the exact same time her shield reattached itself to her left hand. It was then Ruby finally realized the trick behind the magic show, but Pyrrha gave her no chance to recover by holding her blade mere centimeters away from her forehead.

"I'm sorry, but this is where it ends. Surrender your weapons now, and we can resolve this peacefully."

* * *

"I should've brought a recorder."

For the first in a while Blake Belladonna felt like she had made a most wise decision, hanging upside down of an impossible ledge at the top of a hill observing the battle that's happening below her; especially the part where Ruby got tricked and dove into the ground like a shovel. After she discovered Pyrrha and Jaune, her ultimate decision was to remain hidden and simply let Ruby handle the duo. It might be a mortifying thing to admit, but to her knowledge there weren't many people Ruby's age who could fight on par with a veteran Huntsman (through a little passive aggressive proddings, Blake realized that Ruby's anti-social tendencies actually impacted her combat strength against a human opponent, and it is only when facing Demons she would display an inhuman level of power). Until a new crisis presented itself, Blake saw no benefit in revealing her own presence.

Still, she isn't an idle person. In addition to observing the fight she also kept watch of the horizon for foreign elements that might potentially disrupt them. Search parties notwithstanding, she hadn't forgotten that this forest was called a Dead Zone for a reason. For now it didn't look like the roaming Grimm was going to be a threat, but if something sizable did show up then she would have to decide between handling it herself or alerting the others. She looked towards the cloudy sky and smiled devillishly. Night time is her true haven, but the weather looked good enough that she could handle a swarm or two on her own. Abruptly, she squinted brilliant golden eyes towards the distance and took note of an enlarging black dot at the horizon. She smiled a devil's smile, _speak of the devil..._


	3. Omake 1 - Ruby's Social Life Education 1

**Author's Note: A random omake to make up for my temporary hiatus for vacation at New Zealand. Humor is never my high point, so apologies if it's kinda bland?**

* * *

 **RWBY Journey Omake: Ruby's Social Life Education, 1**

"Are you ready, big sis?" Yang Xiao Long clapped her hands together with a jovial grin, "Great! Let us begin your very first chapter on the foundation of modern civilization, socializing, some _normal_ common sense and let us not forget sav -"

"If you don't cut the bullshit I'm going to bed like, immediately."

"Okay, okay! Jeez, I prepped that intro for a whole hour, ya know? Anyway, _ahem_ ," the blonde quickly continued before her glaring partner could use the gap in her speech to run away, "Let's start off with a simple one: shopping."

" _Shopping?_ "

"Shopping! Specifically I'm talking about your clothes. Tell me, how long have you been wearing that same outfit?" the blonde pointed up and down at Ruby's signature red-and-black combat dress.

"Three months."

"A week, right? That's - _did you just say three MONTHS!?"_ Yang recoiled as if she was slapped in the face. Ruby chewed her eyebrows together at the blonde's 'overreaction' and asked, "What's wrong? It's my _combat_ suit. Of course I'm going to wear it at all times."

"Right, yeah, sure, survival readiness or whatever, but _THREE. MONTHS?_ Don't you get bored seeing the same _colors_ every day? Don't your skin ever _itch_ for a new _,_ fresh fabric?"

Yang seethed through bare teeth, putting extra emphasis on 'color' and 'itch' in hopes that the girl would finally awaken to her feminine side, but Ruby simply pulled an identical set of clothes from her bag and said,

"Duh. How can I blend myself into the surroundings properly if I am not totally familiar with the shades of my clothes? Also, _this_ is my newer, fresher spare I change into when I can no longer cover the smell, if this is what you mean."

" _Nooooooo!_ That's not what I meant! Like _argh,_ I know you live outdoors most of the time and a high class combat suit can be pretty expensive to tailor, but - wait a second."

The brunette blinked at a sudden gust of wind fluttering past her cheeks, and suddenly Yang was stabbing a finger at her cheeks with bloody red eyes,

"Can you repeat what you just said?"

Normally Ruby would totally smack her to kingdom come for such a gesture, but something about the current Yang made her hesitate, "Ah... I change into this spare when I can no longer cover the smell...?"

"By smell, you mean stink."

"Y-yees?" the finger was poking in harder, and harder, and harder. Ruby was shocked to find that, no matter how she moved she couldn't get away from the dreaded finger. Since when did Yang turn into a kungfu master!?

"And how often do you wash your clothes? Wait! Come closer, I don't think the readers are ready for this."

"Who -"

" _Just come closer!"_ She did. She whispered something into the blonde's ears. Yang nodded sagely as if she had just told the greatest secret of the world, folded her arms, looked towards the sunset...

Aaaaaaand exploded.

P.S. A few days later Yang's burden grew twice its original size, but she ain't complaining, and she made sure she would never have to (Ruby: Not fair! This unnecessary 'washing' chore is going to del - Yang: JUST. DO. IT.).


	4. Chapter 3 - What The Schnee?

**Author's Note: Chapter up! The suspense begins.**

* * *

"Houston, we have a problem."

"What!? Where?"

"I was joking. RVS-97 reports Area A-65-70B, clear as the forsaken alarm that would not stop reminding me I work 18 hours a day. This is _Atlas_ border, boss, no way she could've made it all the way here."

"It ain't funny. AT. ALL. I had enough of your bullshit, and I'm going to - What's that?"

"Look bro, I may be an ass without sleep but I _so_ do not deserve… Oh. What the hell _is_ that?"

* * *

Here lies Jaune of Arc, below average Huntsman and ungrateful child, also known by both friend and foe as the greatest punching bag in human history. Jaune knows that his shield and armor (never his sword; he had at least that much self-conscious) are the only things that kept him from being roasted alive – _EEEEEK FIRE ON MY PANTS PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT!_ \- but it wasn't any better to be pummeled like a piece of tenderized meat. If they're both are sexy blondes, then why is crazy fire lady waaaaay beyond his level? This is unfair!

As he saw Pyrrha finally taking down the equally crazy scythe kid, Jaune let loose a sob – did he say sob? He meant sigh. A man sheds no tears, dammit! – of relief before pushing Yang away with his shield, "Your friend – _pant!_ \- is our prisoner! - _pant!_ \- Now surrender, or I'll – I'll –"

"You'll what?" To his surprise, crazy fire lady did not look worried in the slightest and actually shrugged playfully, "Son, I admit your turtle shell's a little hard to crack, but you didn't seriously think that I'm fighting you seriously, right?"

An uncontrollable shiver ran down his spine, but he quickly reminded himself of his own advice to Pyrrha and held up his shield – _and sword, must not remember one hand and not the other,_ "Cut the jokes! You have until Pyrrha ties your friend up and comes over. Put away your weapons, and I won't ask her to knock you all over the place like a pinball!"

Crazy fire lady blinked, "That is a self-depreciating order if I've ever heard one. You're completely whipped, aren't you?"

" _What?_ She's not -"

"Anyway, the answer's no so let's get back to business. You should probably squat lower."

"Wh -"

Mystic yellow blurred before his eyes, and Jaune Arc instinctively raised his shield and braced for impact. It was the best reaction he ever had in his life, because a second later he found himself flying across the air; blood showering out of his nose like a fountain and his arms completely without feelings before a bone shattering impact jolted all the pain in the world into existence. He groaned. He was surprised he didn't crumple or coil up like a baby. Somewhere in the distance a shocked 'Jaune!' floated ephemerally into his ears, but all he could do was stare at the fiery terror walking towards him with a cocky grin, and the closer she came the harder it was to hold in the scream that threatened to burst out of his teeth.

Yang exclaimed loudly, "Man, your shield is _really_ good. That was about 5% cheat power and I still can't put a dent on it!"

Blood gushed out of his lips, and the pain was enough to bring Jaune back to his senses, "Laugh... all you want.. but I won't let you... Pyrrha... monster!"

Yang's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed into pity, then abruptly she blushed an incomprehensible pink that baffled him so much Jaune thought his eyes were playing tricks with him. But then she said, "I'm flattered you think so highly of me, really, but believe me, I am _far_ from being your greatest threat. Look over there."

Jaune chased her eyes towards the other pair of fighters, and as the great battle unfolded, his eyes widened until they were as big as saucers. _No. This can't be happening._ He tried to roll his tongue to say 'split', but found the process unbelievably foreign due to pain and panic, _Never mind me;_ _she has_ _to go before it's too late!_

The blond felt the pair of violet eyes shifting back towards him, appraising for a little while before giving in to subtle respect, "I'm sorry. Now, do watch your sides and hold up your chin; I'm gonna practice some offensive maneuvering that doesn't involve faceplanting into the ground. Oh, sparring can't be _this_ comfortable, can it!?"

* * *

"Polarity? You've got quite the top rank Semblance there, Huntress." Ruby said with wide, curious eyes. Pyrrha was more than a little concern that the young girl – _god, she can't be more than sixteen and she almost got me. Who are these people?_ \- showed no signs of fear whatsoever, but she was confident that she could deal with anything from this position,

"This is your last warning. Put away your weapon, or I'll do it for you."

"… Go on." Ruby said.

"What?"

"I mean, do it. Take away my scythe." Ruby actually lifted her weapon a few centimeters off ground and wiggled it tauntingly, "Or do you need an incentive? Okay, let me just -"

The scythe, the belt, even the pouch – Pyrrha pulled every metallic object she could detect from the girl and flung them into the far, far distance. She didn't think it was an overreaction. With a blade pointed to her head, the young girl had actually tried to _shoot_ her, forcing her to react exactly as she wanted to. Pyrrha didn't like this feeling at all. Even with the upper hand, Pyrrha couldn't help but feel like she was playing right into the enemy's trap.

 _She's just trying to distract me. I should knock her out and help Jaune._ But before she could turn her thoughts into actions, Ruby spoke up again,

"I see. You have much stronger control over metal things you touched, but not so much over those you didn't." Pyrrha watched the prone girl noting thoughtfully at her items still falling from the sky, and felt imaginary spiders crawling all over her skin. _S_ _he_ _did it to_ _gaug_ _e_ _my abilities. I_ _have_ _to take her out_ now!

But she would never have the chance. As her spear swiped only air where Ruby's head once was, Pyrrha tossed her shield in vain to see it pass through a cloud of petals zooming towards the falling weapons like a lightning bolt. Pyrrha instinctively tried to chase after the girl, but turned 90 degrees immediately towards Jaune fully intending to aid him defeat the fiery boxer. That was when she saw in horror the young man crashing into the flat side of a massive rock looking like he was ran over by a truck. She screamed out his name while transforming her spear into assault rifle form. Three times she fired. All of them blocked by the twirl of an impossible scythe by an impossible girl who should be half a mile away. Emerald met silver eyes. As if she couldn't take the cockiness dancing in those playful orbs, Pyrrha closed her own and sucked in two slow, even breaths. When she opened them again, they were as steely as the light glinting off her armor.

"Here I come!"

There was a time where people believed that Pyrrha Nikos is a defensive fighter. There was much controversy when she won her first Mistral Tournament by simply defending until her opponents opened themselves to a chain of unstoppable counters. But the simple fact was that no one really came close to force out her true power; to make her stake her title as the 'Invincible Girl' and do everything to win..

But this girl was unlike anyone she has ever fought, she couldn't remotely gauge the depth of her enemy's strength _. She has both range and weight over my weapons, and my Semblance gets weaker the further a target is. My victory… lies in_ zero _range._ Pyrrha charged. She imagined a pull in her mind, and her bronze shield circled in from behind Ruby at the same time she swung her xyphos for a pincer attack. Ruby might have displayed complacency earlier, but her fully relaxed battle posture indicated anything but; waiting until the last possible second before triggering a swing. Without a second thought Pyrrha pulled at the metal weapon – it was possible to pull it right out of her opponent's grip, but it also required a great deal of energy against a prepared opponent – willing it to shift just a few centimeters off angle that it wouldn't block either attacks. In her head, she had imagined Ruby to fire again mid-swing in order to forcefully readjust the trajectory, thus straining her petite body setting her energy levels backwards.

But Ruby went completely against her expectations. Rose petals covered her vision in red, and suddenly a terrible pain scorching her back like fire. _What is this Semblance?_ _It looks like teleportation, but something's different._ Akouo came within a centimeter of her cheek before narrowly circling away – a magnetic field around her body ensured that her own weapons would never hit her – and gathering her wits Pyrrha jabbed backwards with a transformed Milo before slicing downwards. Her opponent teleported _again_ and slammed the tip of the scythe into her chest. _Ugh! If that had been a spear – no time to think!_ At this point Pyrrha had fully enveloped himself in a repelling field, so the damage she suffered was less that what it could've been.

But this is where a scythe, a _retractile_ scythe shows its fangs. The red blade suddenly extended outwards, pushing a surprised Pyrrha off balance before scoring yet another painful gash below her thigh. _Now she's using my field against me!_ She knew it wasn't going to stop there. Fearless and determined, the warrioress resummoned Akouo into her hand and did not stop rotating both sword and shield in a weaving pattern to parry as many strikes as possible. After enduring what seemed like an eternity of seconds, Ruby finally halted the storm of blades and dashed away. This was exactly the moment Pyrrha had been waiting for. _Like I thought, t_ _here's no way she can_ _do this_ _repeatedly without rest – th_ _is is my only chance_ _!_

The Huntress charged. Like a leopard she pounced towards the retreating redhead with her body leaned almost parallel to the ground, and at the same time she had flung out her shield once again to cut in from the back. Still running, Pyrrha aimed her right thumb at the center of the girl's torso and a heartbeat later threw Milo with a mighty swing of the arm. The young girl's eyes widened as she attempted to sidestep the killing spear, then realizing its futility before teleporting _directly behind her sailing shield_ and missed both deadly trajectories by millimeters. But Pyrrha had anticipated that. She had timed her spear to cut off Ruby's ability to bat away her shield, and it was even more unlikely that Ruby would attempt the same vanishing trick against the other much mobile and smaller target. Pushing both her legs and Semblance with everything she got, Pyrrha stomped a foot-shaped hole in the ground and zeroed their distance in a single burst of power.

They could feel taste each other's breaths. Pyrrha slammed an elbow towards the thigh at point blank range, struck only thin air as Ruby shot herself away while simultaneously bringing her scythe to slice her legs in half, but she improvised immediately into a groundward punch and threw herself into the air. The scythe took away the top part of her knuckles, but she gritted her teeth and gathered every bit of strength into her remaining arm, going so far as to use polarity to adjust it. Barring a few exceptions, a person's age and body size directly reflects a person's capacity of Aura. It was impossible for her to endure the blow, and even if she got lucky she would have to spend months in hospital reattaching the lower part of her jaw. Pyrrha swung down in a powerful arc to hit – _nothing_ but a few rosy petals, and Pyrrha literally had nothing left in her body to resist the enemy whom she knew was now behind her.

That was why she wasn't going to. Pyrrha closed her eyes. and both Milo and Akouo, her soul and spirit stopped suddenly in mid air, spun around like clockwork, and with a terrific boom crisscrossed towards Ruby like streaks of light. This is her final trap; her final ace in the hole. There was no way her opponent could react in time by normal means, and she most likely no longer had a Semblance charge to dodge it. Either this is her victory, or -

"Heavy Stance – Full Moon."

And there was only darkness.

* * *

"Phew… That was closer than it should be."

Ruby muttered quietly as she stared down at her shaking hands. The warrioress hadn't miscalculated. For all her experience – which was honestly not much at all when it comes to dueling – Ruby hadn't anticipated that final spear and shield to soar at twice the speed of a bullet. Even if she could follow them with her eyes, it would have been impossible for her body to defend the deadly attacks.

So the only reason she managed to defend against the final hit _and_ took down Pyrrha, was because she had anticipated such a move from the beginning. Ruby knew that a battle of attrition would not go well for her, so she intentionally exhausted her Semblance to force the Huntress's hand. Pyrrha had the choice to outlast her, but she knew that Pyrrha knew she could not adapt in time to weather the storm before committing a fatal mistake. Therefore the Huntress chose the riskier path. Pyrrha dove at her in apparent suicidal fashion and let go of her shield. Ruby could have deflected it, except she wasn't given the chance by Pyrrha's lightning toss of a spear, and so sharp and cunning the point of her target that from that point she could only take one step after another right into the death trap Pyrrha had laid for her.

But no one said you couldn't use the trapper's trap against themselves. Ruby didn't know what Pyrrha's ace in the hole is, of course. But she did know that if she was in the Huntress' place, she would choose the exact same opening to drive the nail into the coffin. That was why the moment she used her final dash – and even before that, she was already moving both arms and feet into position – she immediately executed Full Moon; one of the few proper techniques she had learned from a true scythe master. The Full Moon involves only one simple form: the wielder must swing out 360 degrees in one fluid motion, and deflect everything that threatens to break the circle. Easier said than done of course, and today her Full Moon had never come closer to shattering. The spear, the shield, the Huntress herself. It really could've been anyone's victory.

"The old masters always said that the Huntsmen have declined, and that one generation is never the better of the former. But… I guess they are wrong after all." Smiling – she noticed that she was smiling a lot more lately; there may be a need to train her poker face some more – at the fainted Huntress, she felt surprisingly no ill will towards her potential killer and even a tinge of regret that their meeting couldn't be more… amiable. _Wow, stop right there Ruby Rose, you are letting Yang change you too much._ After hesitating for a second, Ruby vanished into thin air before reappearing with Milo and Akouo in her hands. She then laid them down by her side before tipping her head into a final bow of respect.

 _Good or evil, may our paths cross each other again, Huntress Pyrrha Nikos._

Ruby walked away. Not too far, Yang was still bullying the crap out of her male counterpart; looking to have a sadistic side inside her. Obviously the blonde had much pent up frustration by the fact that everyone in her team could toss her around like a rag toy, but it was about time she stopped venting. Ruby lifted a Gun Form Crescent Rose with both arms, took her time to steady an aim, and fired.

"Hahahaha that went rather well didn't it? Now how about AAAAGHH! MY EYES! MY EYES!"

"Believe it or not, Yang, you and I are gonna have a talk about _ethics_ later. You – Jaune, is it? Grab your friend and go."

The blond lifted his head with immense difficulty. While Yang did her best not to hurt Jaune too badly, he really was just unbelievably stubborn and wouldn't go down even with wounds tattering every part of his body. As he glared defiantly at her, Ruby let out a sigh and pointed towards Pyrrha,

"I would tell you that we're not the people you're looking for, but obviously you're not going to listen to me. So instead, I'm going to ask you to look at her. Look at your friend. She's bleeding out of her head and I'm pretty sure I cracked her skull a little with that final blow. If she isn't treated soon, her life is going to be in real danger. But I can't let you call for an aircraft." Blue pupils widened in shock as Ruby casually let the broken bits of the Huntsman's scroll fall from her hands - not even Yang saw how she swiped the device from the blond from that range, "So you have two choices. Either you can fight both of us and be killed in glorious combat, or you can take her with you and save her life before it's too late. I won't say this twice."

For a second Jaune glared at Ruby with pure hatred, then he turned to look at the tattered Pyrrha before sanity finally settled back into his eyes. He nodded. Slowly, cautiously, Jaune Arc walked to where Pyrrha was, struggled a little to fit Milo and Akouo behind his back before finally lifting Pyrrha into his arms. Ruby watched until the duo vanished behind the trail they came from.

"Now then…" Ruby turned around to glare at a certain panicking blonde, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

A tiptoeing Yang gave up escaping and protested profusely, "It's not my fault! The damn turtle just wouldn't go down even though I hit him _5_ times in the head! Like c'mon, I don't actually want to kill someone!"

"Look –"

"I mean sure I got a little carried away afterward, but didn't _you_ get carried away too when you _supposedly_ train me? I still have that bruise you put on my ribs yesterday and even the all powerful Aura couldn't heal it in time, bloody –"

" _Look. Behind. You!"_

Ruby pointed an impatient – if not slightly _panicked –_ finger at Yang's back, and the blonde finally realized Ruby wasn't ragging her per usual, at least not right away. She turned around to stare at that direction, and she saw...

* * *

"That was easier than I thought. Too easy. Mustn't rely too much on this power, or I'll _really_ become weak."

Drop, slit, pull, end of a job. Within the matter of minutes, she had exterminated every single life abroad RVS-97 (Roving Scout). No one ever realized their throats were cut until they're gurgling on the floor, and the Shadow Dimension just made the disposal of bodies unbelievably easy. Blake Belladonna hummed an old tune on the pilot's seat as she pondered the best way to utilize this captured aircraft. _It's probably impossible to sell this in Atlas or Shiva, sticklers they are. I could keep this as a backup plan – but then I'll have to find time to dismantle its signal device, and preferably without Ruby knowing…_

"Huh? What's... _Aaahhhh!?_ "

All the sudden the screen became completely blinded by white light, and Blake recoiled as if – _was –_ struck by thunder. Her hair was singed, her skin was _melting before_ the it finally faded. Blake was completely dazed for a second; felt as if every strength in her body had drained away by the terrible, terrible light, before she remembered that she was piloting an aircraft and quickly wrestled control of the ship through blurry eyes. She had to crash through the top of several trees before finally swerving back into air. But there wasn't time to feel pain, confusion or even relief – the moment her vision fully recovered Blake set course to fly directly towards it; towards the light that had burst to the skies before it nearly burned her to a crisp. It was a snowflake. It was a symbol.

Weiss Schnee, has returned.


	5. Chapter 4 - Amidst Darkness

**Author's Note: Chapter 4 up. Now I have no excuse to push away the dreaded decision trees plaguing me for days. NOOOOOO!**

* * *

When Yang saw the symbol; a thought purifying, soul cleansing snowflake made of light that soothed her just by watching, her brain melted momentarily into scrambled eggs. Her beginning thoughts were innocent: _That's where we left Penny and Weiss Schnee. What happened? Is it something Penny did, or does a Schnee shine like a light show every time they awaken from her slumber?_

But eventually, inevitably, they strayed into the darker zones of the human mind. _Oh, no. We can't be the only ones who saw it._ Immediately she turned towards Ruby and said,

"We have to get them!"

"We need to leave now!"

Both voices rang out simultaneously before the girls stared at each other in surprise. Yang broke into a smile, "Glad to see you care, big sis! Now, let's go get them right away!"

But just as she was about to break into a run, a firm grip caught onto her wrist, "No, Yang! I mean we have to leave them behind and go, _now._ "

"What? We can't do that!" Yang yelped.

"Yang," the young girl said with pressed eyebrows, "Think. We're less than half a day away from Atlas borders, and they will definitely send large force to investigate the phenomenon. Penny can cloak herself and the Schnee, but neither of us have the ability to hide from scans. Our presence are only going to complicate things and expose everyone to danger." she paused before adding, "And don't forget about the Huntsmen we just fought. I can only hope they haven't put two to two already."

"… That sounds fine and all, but why do I feel like you're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart?" The blonde eyed the young girl suspiciously. Ruby sighed,

"I'm not. Yang, I'm going to ask you this one last time: Are you sure you don't want to leave them behind? This will be the perfect opportunity to do so. This isn't Penny's world; I can obfuscate our tracks well enough to throw her off."

 _She can't mean what she says!_ Yang threw her hand up frustratedly, "But why!? Penny is one thing, but we'll be leaving Weiss Schnee to captivity, maybe even death! If I abandon her now, I may as well have surrendered her two weeks ago!"

"Do you really think that outburst is an accident?"

"Huh?"

Ruby shook her head and said, "Never mind, forget what I said. Yang, you trust my instincts, don't you? Let's just say that I have a very, very bad feeling about this whole thing, and I believe – as your friend – that it is in yours, and mine, and everyone's best interests that we leave as soon as possible. We'll find then; I won't ask you to abandon Penny or her, but for now, let us retreat and wait for our opportunity… okay?"

The blonde clenched her fists, thinking hard, growing angry. She didn't like this; the thought of abandoning someone, her idol no less to the wolves sickened her almost as much as killing her with her own hands. _Calm down. We're not actually abandoning them_. As Ruby had laid out before her, there maybe hundreds of soldiers and drones and god-knows-what flying in to investigate the site. It would be a riot. If she charged in there without any sort of stealth ability, she would only endanger them both. _Ruby's right._ If she truly wanted the Queen and even Penny to be safe, she should retreat and wait for Blake to regroup. As for Ruby's other implications...

She didn't think, and didn't want to think about conspiracies at the moment. The blonde gazed up towards a pensive Ruby, then at the distant trees before reluctantly nodding,

"Alright, big sis. Let's go."

* * *

Night time came quickly. The duo opted to settle down at the thickest part of the forest, lighting no fires or any electrical appliances since they could hear even now the rumblings of faraway machines. They were lucky to have gotten away without encountering even a single obstacle, but Yang's mood was understandably not as good as she would've liked. The blonde picked away at a dry branch while resting behind the trunk of a tall pine tree, waiting for either sleep or Ruby's orders to take her. Neither came. Neither did Penny, or Weiss, or Blake, and with every breath she took the world seemed to turn a shade darker.

Ruby sat on top of their luggage at the opposite side. Despite the night freezing at about 5 degree Celsius, she had kept her crimson cloak down and listened vigilantly at every tiny sound around her, sometimes snapping at odd directions even though there was nothing to be found. _Haven't seen her this high strung in a while_ _._ Occasionally her partner would glance at her, and Yang would smile a practiced smile to indicate that everything was alright, but she knew that they knew it wasn't. Something wasn't right. Penny and Weiss Schnee aside, Blake should've showed up ages ago. She was sure that the ninja-like girl was watching over them during their battle against the Huntsmen, maybe even dispatched a few threats without them knowing it. But she really should've regrouped by now. This wasn't like Bamborsa, where a sea of Grimm could appear without anyone noticing and responding towards it, and given her special abilities slipping away from either forces should be child's play. So why isn't she showing up? If the nightshade had somehow gotten herself caught, then…

"Hey." The blonde noticed only after the words slipped out of her mouth. Ruby took a few seconds to ponder the black world before nodding at her direction,

"Yes?"

"Tell me about the Schnee. You mentioned something about their heritage, right?" Yang regretted it almost immediately after she said those words. Ruby had just declined to talk about it this morning. What are the chances she'd talk about it less than half a day later?

To her surprise, Ruby nodded to her request and said, "… Now's a time as any I guess. What do you know about the Schnee family?"

"Let's see… Number one, they are the only known royal family left in the world," Yang lifted a finger, "Number two – well, I suppose this applies to the Kingdom itself – where everyone else had signed the United Front Pact to form Remnant's biggest intergovernmental organization, Shiva is the only nation who declined to maintain their long standing independence, and the decision is enforced by none other than the Schnee royal family."

Ruby arched an eyebrow while commenting, "You really, _really_ worship Weiss Schnee, don't you?"

"What is that supposed to mean!?"

"Nothing. Go on."

The blonde harrumphed before continuing, "The Schnee family is often thought as traditional, if not outdated by most people due to insistences such as maintaining a despotic monarchy, selective marriage to preserve the purity of their bloodline, and of course most famously their eternal oath to uphold the Last Codes of the Spirits. But it is not without good reason. For example, by upholding the Last Codes, the Schnee family gains access to an ancient power that is lost to almost all of humanity, and that is –"

"– Magic. Or to put it under a more subjective light; while even the most current technology can only derive at best 60 percent power from a top grade Dust crystal, the Schnee family can derive 99.99 percent energy and manifest them in ways that are only possible pre-Darkness era. You are probably aware of various theories in regards their Dust manipulation (the Schnee family maintains absolute secrecy about their bloodline's power, and will neither confirm nor dispute any theories arising from outward observation) and ability to commune with the Spirits, but let's talk about something different. Something you and most of the mass don't know."

Curiosity piqued, Yang tapped her knees impatiently as Ruby took out her water bottle for a long sip, seemingly arranging her thoughts before she finally put it away, "What do you know about Grimm Tamers, Yang?"

"Huh?" The sudden change of subject caught the blonde off guard, but it didn't take her long to reply, "Well, the name itself is self-explanatory, isn't it? They're people who can control the Grimm!"

Ruby shook her head while replying, "Nuh uh. It's a common misconception, but a Grimm Tamer can't actually _control_ a Grimm like a pilot controlling a Paladin. What they do is cage – by using a Grimm's natural aversion to Dust – their captured Grimm at a specific battlefield before using emotional suggestions to make it attack their enemies. The good thing is that being a Grimm Tamer is that it is all about the carrot and stick approach, and if you know the right methods and practice hard enough, anyone can become a Grimm Tamer. The bad news, well, I don't need to state the obvious, do I?"

Yang said, "Huh. Sounds like they're cooler than I thought. I wonder how they managed to influence a _Nevermore_ though?"

"No idea. Threaten it with bombs strapped to its mouth, maybe? Anyway, I didn't bring this up to discuss how to tame a Grimm. I think it's stupid anyway since killing them is just so much simpler, not to mention that the Grimm might one day grow powerful enough to evolve into a Demon. _That_ will be bloodbath." although the night prevented her from seeing clearly, Yang could totally imagine her partner rolling her eyes as she said that, "Back to the point. There are obvious advantages to be able to command a whole horde of Grimm, but ultimately it isn't actual control and is a literal time bomb waiting to explode. So even though Grimm Tamers are quite popular at dry and flat western regions, everywhere else – especially a Grimm hating nation like Atlas – the occupation sucks big time."

The girl suddenly opened up a palm, "But what if there _is_ a way to control the Grimm?"

"What?"

"What if there is a way to _purify_ the Grimm? Or should I put more accurately, killing its original body and then granting it a new one. What if, depending on the scope of your power, you can kill and store these purified creatures into your soul, ready to be summoned at the blink of an eye?"

Yang didn't realize her jaw had dropped to the ground, "You don't mean..."

"I learned this from a lesson of my old Master's, and although those old coots can't be trusted to keep a dime, their knowledge are usually right. Those with the Schnee bloodline are able to summon their vanquished enemies into battle, and since these creatures are created from their own powers, there is no chance of them degrading back into monsters. Of course, the summons will require great mental prowess and practice; imagine something like growing a third arm and learning to use it, except every time you summon a new one you tax another limb to your brain."

"Wow. That's… wow." Memories danced before her eyes as Yang recalled the shows Weiss Schnee sang on, the ones where she added a pinch of excitement by conjuring beautiful white birds into the air. At the time she simply thought that it was just Weiss' ice mastery reaching unprecedented heights, "Wait a second, Weiss is – Weiss Schnee is the only person I've seen doing that. 2 times on TV, one private setting that I have to buy a handcam footage at a price you're better off not knowing. But the way you said it, anyone with the blood can do the summoning."

Ruby answered, "They can, but obviously the Schnee has reasons to put a lock on this power. Can you imagine if it was misused?… It would change the world."

The young girl ended her final words thoughtful, as if she herself had never considered this until it was spoke aloud. Yang herself was pensive. Is this what all this witch hunting is about? The enabling of a forbidden power through the removal of its greatest protector?

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Blake!"

Yang exclaimed as a shadow cloaked figure dropped down from the trees and walked towards them. Blake nodded towards the blonde with an uncertain smile - it would seem that she still hadn't put down their disagreements last night, "Hey, Yang."

"My god, I was worried for you! Both of us are! Where -"

"Where have you been?"

If Yang's greeting is like the sunrise, then Ruby's chilling enough to cut to the bone. Scratch that, she actually took out her rifle and pointed directly at her head! The nightshade arched an eyebrow at the sudden threat, and Yang exclaimed in abject disbelief,

"What the hell, Ruby! Put the gun down! That's no way to greet anyone!"

But the young girl ignored her and said, "These are specially synthesized bullets consisting of 3 types of Dust, 95% purity that are capable of stunning even an Elder Goliath with one shot. You may still survive this, but I bet it won't feel good to take days, if not weeks to regrow a head. Now answer me. Where have you been, and what have you done?"

The two women stared coldly at each other. Blake looked like she would take up Ruby's challenge, but ultimately she changed her mind. It didn't stop her from being scathingly sarcastic though,

"Looking. I went looking for a light that erupted out of nowhere because it is bright and shiny and happened to be right where we left off a robot and a Queen. Finding no one I naturally tried running away, but the couple hundred of soldiers, drones, war machines et cetera scouring the area made said task less than easy. Do you know there's a time limit to staying inside the shadow realms? I didn't know that either, until I was suddenly spat out into the open and nearly got killed. Oh, no one saw me, or you would have heard all the gunshots and explosions you'll ever want to hear." Blake raised her chin daringly and lifted a mirthless smile, " Now, I kinda wished I did."

Ruby said as if she hadn't heard the underlying threat, "You did not go look for them out of some misguided sense of camaraderie." Yang barely held in a complaint behind her lips upon hearing that, "In fact, as far as I can remember you want them gone. So why would you go look for them?"

"Who said I was?" Blake countered immediately. She pulled apart the bandages on her left arm – only now Yang noticed that it wasn't the usual black ribbons – and brandished it in the open. Yang gasped. Even under the cover of darkness she could see that the whole limb was an ugly mess of black and charred red. No untouched skin could be found on the top half of Blake's arm, and there were even bones poking out of her wrist and elbow. Ruby frowned deeply as she inspected the wound before saying,

"It is not healing."

"Exactly. Before it wouldn't _stop_ healing even if I try to control it, but this light _hurt_ me. It halted my regeneration nearly long enough to take my life," Blake said in a light tone that suggested she didn't mind that at all, "You see why I changed my mind. I need to know what the light is, and if it can be used to cure my predicament. If the Schnee is the one who emitted it, then I need to find her and ask if she can do it again. Sounds unbelievable, but I really _do_ have a reason to want her alive now." Blake suddenly walked towards Ruby with a fearless gait until the muzzle was just a few inches away from her forehead, "You've heard my reason, _leader._ Is there anything else you want to know? No? Then you won't mind me asking a question in return: Do you have any plans to go after the Schnee?"

Ruby actually looked caught off guard, but she harrumphed once before finally putting down her weapon. Yang let loose a loud sigh of relief – it wasn't as if she hadn't seen this before, but today's banter was just a tad deadlier than usual – and watched as the young girl pulled out a glow stick, pushed open her map and tapped at several X marks not too far away from where they're resting. Her left eye twitched: for all that talk about abandoning Weiss Schnee and Penny, it would seem that she was very well prepared for the opposite. _You're killing me here, big sis._

"In fact I do. These are the locations where they might've escaped to. Cross them out if you passed by them earlier, Belladonna. We'll be searching them for the whole night, and I will like to get this done before sunrise."

* * *

"Your Highness?"

The throne of Shiva appeared to be a simple five prong construct, except for the fact that it was fabricated completely from pure blue Dust, and on each tip of the prong was a single radiant Dust crystal: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, and at the center of them all, White. It was also completely carved out of ice. Panning out in front of her were rows of octave seats, rippling in the shame of half circles to the end of the hall. This was where her council sat, a crowd of 52 men and women gathered to discuss various official matters. And then there was the rectangular pedestal barred by invisible energy facing towards the throne. This is where the rich or the poor, the innocent or the convict, cultured or unruly, civilian or convict, friend _and_ foe plead their case to the Queen in seek of all kinds of favors. She should know this very well. Four months ago, she had stood at that exact spot, offering support to a person whom she was destined to betray.

"... Your Highness?"

She blinked once. It would seem that she had zoned out a little, even though she couldn't remember the last time she experienced such a lapse of concentration,

"Excuse me. Please state your business."

A tall man about 40 with a bushy mustache and greenish eyes shook his head hastily, "Oh no, ma'am - I mean, Your Highness! It's - _Ahem._ I have just received a request for support from Captain Ciel Soleil. They've found the H - I mean, they've found... her."

She laughed, "No need to be so stiff, Jameson; I'm not your superior anymore... So, she's alive."

"Yes ma'am. Your Highness. What should we do?"

"Hmm. What else? Send out the Snow Wolves."

"What? Even if we're talking about _her_ , isn't that a bit... drastic?"

Abruptly, her ice blue eyes hardened, "Do not presume to question me, councilor. There is a reason why these powers are called Magic, and if it wasn't for the Grimm threatening our Northern borders I would've ordered Team CFVY to secure this matter."

Jameson instinctively saluted out of fear, before realizing his mistake and immediately dropped down on one knee, "Yes, Your Highness! It will be done right away!"

"Dismissed."

Her former subordinate bolted away like a rabbit chased by wolves, and Winter sank into her throne tiredly, only to feel its chill seeping into her bones. This job is tiring. This 'role' is one of the worst she had assumed in many years. She was to be Queen only until the official merge, but already she felt like aging a year every passing day. _So this is her life. This is what she was expected to bear the moment she was born. How terribly... dull._

The moment of doubt flashed past and vanished in an instant. She was not one to give in to weakness. She would perform her duty. Winter Schnee would do everything in her power to ensure that the merging succeeds, and when that happens she would be free, and so would this country bound by ancient chains.


	6. Chapter 5 - Nice Hell You Have There

**Author's Note: Things are about to heat up again.**

* * *

 _What is she thinking?_

Ruby leaped up a jutted rock, listened momentarily to the wind before shaking her head in disappointment. The bright morning sun and cool air usually elevate her mood, but not today. She had high hope for this rocky canyon they were searching at - tough, impenetrable slopes spanning across the land in swaying patterns - because not only its convoluted terrain provides many a great hiding spots, it is also one of the few high grounds in this area. One would be able to see Atlas' coming at least three miles away. But neither Penny nor Weiss were here. So either Atlas' net was tighter than she had thought, or Penny had a different idea in her head.

 _What is she plotting?_

To say that she distrusted the android with every fibre in her body is an understatement. This is an entity who up till Ozpin's intervention, had survived countless assassination attempts by the exact same nation. Even with a burden it was unimaginable that she would get caught - in fact she could probably murder every solder searching for them with poetic ease, if she wanted to. This means that the decision not to return immediately to the group was a conscious one. Ruby was disturbed by this fact. Penny had seemed so obsessed with Yang, no one thought for a second that the android would actually leave 'leave', borrowing Yang's silly phrasing. Now that Ruby really thought about it, Penny had agreed surprisingly easy when she suggested to split up so they could deal with the pursuers. She should have realized then that Penny had a hidden agenda. Or maybe not a hidden one; she could think of exactly one reason why Penny would want to split away from them...

And then there's Weiss Schnee. _Does she play a role in all this?_

Maybe Penny had her own secret plans, maybe she planned from the very beginning to leave them despite her very convincing act of attachment towards Yang, but Ruby was almost 99 percent certain that Penny wouldn't have left without telling them somehow or at least drop in a clue, especially since she knew that they would jump on the tiniest opportunity to run away from her. _Well, she might think that Yang's concern for Weiss Schnee would keep us from doing that - which is exactly what's going on right now - but still, it was still a risk for her, and there's just no harm in contacting us._ So there had to be an external factor that prevented her from doing so. Excluding the obvious ones such as Atlas or even Shiva's troops, the other factor she could think of is Weiss Schnee. But that's likely improbable. Going by this line of thought she had to assume that minutes after her awakening Weiss Schnee had grasped the situation, get to know and persuade Penny to aid her, released that damnable light before ultimately escaping all within the span of minutes. It sounded far-fetched even for someone like her. Speaking of which, although she didn't discuss her thoughts with the others, she secretly didn't believe that Weiss Schnee lost control of her powers as Yang had speculated. The High Queen was famed for her mastery over her Semblance; it was like saying a fish had forgotten momentarily how to swim. So if she hadn't released that light by accident, just what exactly was she aiming for...?

 _"You exceeded the agreed power limit by 5 percent, again. This is the twentieth time already! How on Remnant did you pass a control test, Yang?"_

 _"I can't help it that my Semblance's the explosive type! Also, can you honestly say that you've never lost control of your powers? Legends are legends only after a mountain of failures, Ruby!"_

 _"To answer your question, no, not since I was five years old, and two, you are not a legend. Now unless you want to become a waste of oxygen who failed countless time with nothing to show, I suggest you try harder, you waste of oxygen."_

 _"GAH! STOP CALLING ME THAT! I HATE YOU RUBY!"_

A tiny smile curled up Ruby's lips before she squashed it down with a frown. _Getting distracted on a job? You'd eat your words sooner than you'd like, dumbass._ The young girl shook away the distracting thoughts and was about to resume her search when she felt a vibration from her pockets. She picked up her brand new scroll - Yang bought it for her during an encounter with a travelling merchant, and not wanting to squander her good favor she had accepted it with great reluctance - and unfolded it to see Yang's smiling face,

"Hey sis."

"Hey Yang. You found them?" she answered.

"Nothing yet. But Blake has an interesting idea as to where they might be... c'mon, don't give me that face. Come over quick and we'll talk about it!"

* * *

"So, any chances we might take the easy way in?"

"Unless you plan to go all the way to Atlas' borders and then spend two hundred Lien riding a cab back to the fort, then no, it's not possible."

"Hah, I thought so. But man, just look at these cliffs! It's even _worse_ than the time we climbed down Penny's hole!"

The former Executioner observed at the crumbling stone fortress below her with a deep frown. Upon receiving Yang's call the young girl had swiftly met up with Blake and Yang at the coordinates of a tall hill, and from here she could clearly see one of the most famous tourist spots in Atlas, Fort Knox. Three square towers and a central dome formed an impenetrable triangle, and its only link to the opposite bank was a stone bridge that had crumbled into misty valleys a long time ago.

So far everything seemed relatively peaceful, and beyond the standard guards and occasional tourists Ruby hadn't spotted any danger yet. For the matter, she hadn't spotted either Penny or Weiss Schnee either, and she was currently torn between searching this place right now or wait for a better time.

"You really think they're at Fort Knox?"

"How would I know? But we've search through all the spots on the list with no results - and It's a good list - so I thought maybe our princess and her guardian employed a bit of reverse psychology." Blake said.

"But why?" Ruby muttered, "Even if it's to confuse their pursuers, why would they purposely take the riskier route when they can just safely meet up with us?"

"Maybe it's because they don't know where we are?" Blake said sarcastically.

Ruby shot her a glance before turning back towards the fort, "Penny tracked us down even though we're a couple hundred kilometers away from her home. I think it's safe to say she knows where we are. No, there has to be some other reason." the young girl bit her thumb before looking towards Yang, "What do you think?"

"Eh? You're asking me?" the blonde pointed at herself with a perplexed look. But the instant Ruby's expression darkened Yang immediately responded with a laugh, "Well I think it's pointless to just wait here and talk. Until we give the place a tussle we won't know if they're there, am I right?"

Blake added, "She has a point."

Ruby frowned at her and said, "You're being awfully pushy about this, aren't you?"

Blake let out a frustrated sigh, "Look, I haven't slept the whole yesterday and I just want to get this done. If you don't trust me then fine, I'm going in myself."

"Hey, I'm totally fine with that. See you in -"

"Alright, everyone just cool down for a minute!" Abruptly Yang pulled Ruby to a side, again waving apologetically at an uncaring Blake before whispering, "Now spill. What's gotten you so worried?"

"You do know it's pointless to whisper when we can hear each other half a mile away, right?" Ruby answered sarcastically.

 _"Ruby."_

"Fine," Petite fingers dancing against her weapon's frame Ruby vented, "Weiss Schnee's probably awake. Penny's avoiding us for whatever reason. We're getting way too close to Atlas - hell, we practically _are_ on their land right now - and now we're planning to infiltrate a tourist hot spot for the slim chance of finding our quarries whom I repeat, are hiding from everyone. Meanwhile, it's only a matter of time before Atlas close off this area and search here too. If you still can't tell, I'm worried. _Very_ worried."

Yang paused a little before saying, "I get you. But if we're going to find them, we can't leave any stones unturned, can we? How likely do you think they're there?"

"... Well..."

"Ruby?"

"The chances are a bit higher than fifty." The young girl answered reluctantly, "But only just." she quickly added.

Yang smacked her palms open and grinned apologetically, "That settles it, doesn't it? If you're really uncomfortable, then why don't me and Blake and me go into this fort and give it a brush real quick while you stay here as a lookout. It shouldn't take more than ten or twenty minutes. If you see anything amiss just give us a call and we'll be out like the wind. Deal?"

"Wait, you're going in with _her?_ No way!" Ruby exclaimed before her brain could process the words. Blake's face immediately turned a purple shade of anger and she walked forwards as if she would meet the girl head on, but before either of them could clash Yang quickly stood between the duo with stretched arms,

"Goodness, am I dealing with a bunch of kids here? Ruby, I thought you said you're not comfortable going in!"

"I meant it as the whole operation, and I'm even _less_ comfortable about you taking part in this search. This is a stealth mission, and last time you _paraded_ your way out of Bamborsa!"

"But the place's huge, Ruby, we can't just leave everything to Blake alone!"

"Then _I_ will go with her. You stay here."

Yang sighed, "Ruby -"

"I've made up my mind, Yang. It's either this or we don't comb the place at all!" Ruby snapped with her back facing the blonde. Deep in her heart, she knew she was doing it all over again - ignoring Yang's opinion and deciding things all by herself - but this was one matter she refused to budge on. It has nothing to do with that strange, boiling emotion burning inside her heart. There was a soft sigh and a pat on the shoulder, and the gentle words that showered her next filled her with unspeakable guilt,

"Stay safe. Remember that the best rescue mission comes with no _wheatness_ , yeah?"

* * *

Nature is often not what it seemed, although not of its own fault but the human eyes' inability to perceive vision beyond their field of view or true depth. Fort Knox, Ruby was beginning to realize, was one such marvel that even with a partial topdown view, even with her years of hiking experience, she still underestimated exactly how treacherous the mountain was. Any trail that was not the entrance were impossibly narrow and crooked, and any rock that didn't have hoof marks on them, no matter how solid they seemed, was a thousand feet disaster. But if descending two hundred meters on shaky footing for a passable choke point wasn't hard enough, rock climbing blind certainly was. A mist nearly as thick as the black fog at Bamborsa shrouded half the bottom of the mountain, and nimble as Ruby and Blake neither dared let their previous discord affect their teamwork, lest one misstep add yet another body count to the mountain's history. _Absolutely the right choice to have come instead of Yang._

By the time they finally scaled up the edge of the fort, it was already an hour. A beep sounded from below her waist, and a distorted voice came through,

 _"- Hey! Can anyone hear me?"_

"Here." came Blake's calm voice, whereas Ruby checked the walkway - _good, we're way over time but at least we don't have to knock out any guards -_ before answering, "Climbing took longer than expected. Any status to report?"

 _"Do_ I _have any_ status _to_ report _? So you've finally awakened to the super spy in your heart, eh? No, ma'am, the coast is clear! What will be our new T-minus -"_

Ruby shut down her scroll and walked down the dusty road. At her back Blake wryly answered, "Didn't you said yourself it would take twenty minutes? Talk to you if anything happens."

Blake turned off her scroll too. Once done, Ruby immediately said,

"Let's split up. You search the grounds and the dome, and I'll do the towers. Anything happens, we keep in touch by scroll."

"Why don''t you trust her?" came Blake's abrupt question. The young girl stopped in her tracks, and without turning to face the dark hair woman, Ruby answered,

"You're the one I don't trust, and you know that. Is this really the time?"

"We have an agreement. You know I have no reason to harm Yang as long as we both keep our end of the deal. But even in broad daylight, you don't trust her to be able to handle me... or are you afraid of something else?"

Ruby turned around and stared towards Blake with cold eyes. A moment later she said, "Eighteen minutes. The dome's just around the corner so we'll split up here. is there anything else you want to say?"

The dark hair woman looked surprised. Normally Ruby would be much easier to provoke - she herself knew that, which was exactly why she chose not to explode even though Blake was acting rather strangely - but she also recognized that enough is enough, and changed the tone of the conversation,

"A ticket. Obviously we didn't come through the front gate, so a guard might remember that they've never seen us before. I can grab tickets for both of us from the front counter and it should keep us anonymous. Right, I can also grab us some maps. That should speed things up."

Ruby nodded and trudged towards a hidden corner, "Good idea. I'll wait here then. Make it quick."

The duo parted without another word.

* * *

As it turned out, the mountain wasn't the only wonder that could deceive the eye. _I'm starting to understand why an egotistical country like Atlas would choose not to abolish this place. It might be worth checking out this fort's history._ For a lack of better word, this place is _huge._ The square tower certainly looked awesome from the outside, but the young traveler had thought that stones it was built upon would take up most of the space and leave its interior small and simple.

But she was wrong. Even with a map, navigating this tower was like exploring to a labyrinth. Apparently this tower - and thank Remnant it was the _only_ one that's this complex - was the living quarters of at least a thousand men and thus housed at least two hundred and fifty small rooms, not accounting kitchens, lavatories, stone railings, stairwells and perhaps even secret tunnels, which definitely wasn't an impossibility considering the size of this thing. Hell, for all intents and purposes this tower was no different from a miniature castle. If much of them wasn't ruined or sealed over the passage of time, Ruby would've given up straight away. _I really should have scouted the place first before assigning duties. Belladonna's Semblance is definitely more suitable for this kind of carpet search._

But that wasn't the worst of her problems. Obviously her relationship with Penny or Weiss Schnee combined was not even close to make her comb through every corner of these ruins, so a half-an-hour run was still manageable. No, her obstacles came in forms she could never possibly imagine,

"Remnant, what is a little girl doing here? Come on, I'll bring you to the gates!"

"What? No, I'm a Huntress. Here's my ticket."

"Where did you get this? Stealing is not a good act, okay? _Man, just who are her parents? How irresponsible_ \- huh? Hey!"

If that conversation had happened one time she might have thought it was a fluke, but nearly every person she ran into had similar reactions. It didn't matter if she showed her tickets and her Huntress license (fake, but authentic at first glance), they all thought that she was a lost little girl that needed to get off this 'dangerous, unprotected' premises right away. _What the hell is_ wrong _with this people!? I'm fifteen! Almost six!_ Worse, it would seem the first guard she ran into had made a call for backup, and before she knew it the search had turned into hide-and-seek where she had to avoid security guards, rangers, janitors and even the tourists themselves - _mind your own business, you idiots!_ \- looking out for her. In some cases she actually had to brandish her weapon and threaten those who preferred the 'ask questions later' approach, but she couldn't possibly do that against everyone she comes across. _Maybe I should just keep Crescent Rose out in the open. But wouldn't that attract even more attention? The guards sure don't seem like they'll let me go without iding me at least..._

"You don't look like you belong here."

A crystal, pure voice rang from behind her, and with a sigh Ruby turned around to face the next stranger. She was adorned in a rather large dark green explorer apparel, pale yellow hair pulled back in an off-center ponytail and intelligent eyes - _her eyes are the same color as her hair?_ \- staring from behind a white frame spectacles. Having accumulated a sizable amount of stress Ruby replied most sarcastically,

"Oh, look, she's no taller than I am! Shall I escort you to the gates, young miss?"

Almost immediately the straight line of the spectacled woman's lips pursed into a frown,

"What a rude little child. Did your parents teach you no manners?"

A surge of anger rose at the brief memory of her Master, but Ruby forced it down and said emotionlessly, "I'm a Huntress, and I'm running out of time. If you have nothing constructive to add then I'll be leaving, thank you."

Ruby turned around and walked away without waiting for the woman to speak. From her back she could hear the explorer girl following her while saying,

"I wouldn't expect such positive encouragement from you, but I shall try. What do you know about the detachment of Atlas troops arriving here in less than ten minutes?"

Ruby's footsteps hitched for half a second before she marched on with increased frequency, fully intent on vanishing the moment she turned the next corner. Then, the woman said again,

"Hmm. Is it not constructive enough for you? Then what do you know about repairing a defunct android?"

She stopped. Blurring red, Ruby grabbed the woman by her shoulder before pulling her straight into an empty room, just in time to slip away from the puzzled gaze of a ranger who had just appeared out of the corner she stood a second ago. Ten or so seconds later the footsteps finally faded away, and Ruby immediately glared at the smiling girl before her with her gun jammed beneath her stomach, hissing,

"Who are you?"

"Don't you already know?" Ruby's eyes bulged when she saw the pale yellow color fade away from the explorer's eyes and hair like magic, and when the woman pulled off a layer of skin to reveal a most beatific face she nearly shot the woman she was trying to find,

"My name is Weiss Schnee. It has _not_ been a pleasure meeting you, Ruby Rose, and I am afraid things are about to get worse."


	7. Chapter 6 - Three, Two, One

**Author's Notes: Credits and many thanks to** **5 Coloured Walker** **for beta-ing this chapter!**

* * *

It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like these, cool kids like her...

"Should _not_ be stuck on a piece of rock doing nothing! Dammit, this is so _boring_!"

Yang flung a rock at the cliff before her while chewing furiously on a gum. A full hour and a half had passed since they began the operation, but other than the tiny incident where Ruby and Blake went under radar exactly nothing had happened for the past thirty minutes. Normally she wasn't this fussy, but watching the streams of people going in and out of Fort Knox, talking, wowing, laughing and even doing crazy shit like jumping off a cliff before flying back with their Semblances. It tickled her longing. It had been weeks since she last shopped in a store, or downed a glass of beer.

She wondered how her family is doing.

A bird's chirps snapped Yang out of her reverie, and she turned around just in case to see nothing before opening her scroll. She tapped the group call button, connected to someone and singsonged,

"Hello? Mushi mushi?"

 _-static blur-_ "Yang... hear me?"

A face winked into the screen. It was Blake. Ruby didn't answer; either busy with her own thing or she had not turned her scroll back on. Given the girl's disdain for any electronics not related to her gun, it was a depressing possibility, "Yo, Blakey. You guys are ten minutes late. What's the hold up?"

"Sorry, but this place is... huge. Bigger than expected. Groucher hasn't contacted me yet, but I imagine she's held up by the same issue." There was a pause. "Scratch that, she definitely got it worse than me. Brilliant."

 _"Groucher_ ," Yang stifled a laugh at Ruby's nickname before continuing, "Well, how much longer do you have to look? It's been an hour and a half already!" Yang pinched her nose and groaned, "Excuse me. The jealous fit will pass before you know it."

"Jealous?"

"I'm social. Socializing's my thing. It's been weeks since we're close to a crowd, so you can say my sides are itching up pretty badly." Yang paused in thought, "That reminds me. I've always wanted to visit Atlas, and now there's a tourist hot spot right in front of me. Dammit, I am so… envious!"

There was a strange sound emitting from the scroll, and it took a while before Yang realized that it was a rare giggle from Blake. But before she could comment Blake responded dryly, "If your idea of fun involves scouring through every room, hallway, invisible corners and toilets on a time limit, feel free to replace me on our next excursion."

"Hey, it beats sitting around my ass doing nothing, and it's not always going to be like this, right? One day you'll find a place that you'd really like to explore, and you'll be begging me like, 'Yang, _paw-lease_ , I wanna!'"

"... That will never happen." Yang snickered at the extended pause, and she wasn't done just yet,

"I'll be like, 'Sure! Go on!' And while you're looking around I'll be holding the _cat-_ mera filming every move; here lies Blake the Explorer in her natural habitat, stalking, skulking, ready to _cat_ her prey -"

"One more word and your _ahoge_ won't see tomorrow's daylight."

"..."

"..."

"Anyway, I should get back to searching. If there's nothing else..."

"There is nutt - Ahahaha, sorry, I swear my switch just takes some time to turn off; I'll see you in -" Another high-pitched bird call pierced through from the lively forest behind her, and Yang frowned before looking towards her back, "Actually, there is something. Did you hear that?"

"Hear what? The bird?"

"Yeah. You know, I could've sworn it sounded exactly the same as the one before... wait that's stupid. If it's from the same bird then of course it's going to sound the same. Never mind, just -"

"Yang."

When Blake speaks normally, there is an undertone of laziness that indicates that she is relaxed. Just like a cat! But now that laziness was completely gone, replaced by a steely note so sharp it made the hair stand on her back, "When exactly did you hear that last bird call?"

"R-right before I call you." Yang said.

"Oh no." A sudden static garbled the feed again, this time far worse than the previous, but thankfully it stayed until she listened to the end, "Get out of - _static blur-_ I'll find Ruby. We meet up _more -static blur-_ do you hear me? We meet up at the ca -"

The call died completely. Yang felt cold sweat seeping through the back of her shirt as she turned off her scroll and put on the bags immediately. The fact that she almost made a fatal mistake if not for Blake's perception did not miss her, but she had live first to be able to make time for regrets later. The blonde watched the foliages carefully before her as if they had transmogrified into the mouth of a sinister beast, and after tossing yet another stone into a particularly thick bush - hearing nothing, thank Remnant - she quickly ran down the path towards their agreed meeting spot.

Then, a hand wrapped around her throat from the other side of the bush, and began crushing her windpipe.

* * *

Blake slipped the scroll into her back pockets nonchalantly, and exited the central dome. The central dome of Fort Knox is both an administrative and ammunition storage facility. Naturally, it did not attract nearly as many tourists as the far panoramic towers and had a lot more sealed off or restricted areas, making it the perfect hiding spot that even someone her experience and natural affinity couldn't uncover quickly. But Blake had thought for sure that she would find Weiss Schnee first long before the troops would arrive. That hope was thrown right out of the window by Yang's ill-bearing transmission, and now she had to leave, fast. She did not, as she had reassured Yang, go look for Ruby. The young girl would notice the commotion soon enough, and there was no point in meeting up when they work better alone anyway.

The dome and the front entrance is separated by a bricked assembly ground, its smoothed surface and worn bumps a remembrance to the countless soldiers who once marched above them. Blake strode calmly along guided tracks with all the casualness of a tourist about to return home after a satisfying visit, and she was uninterrupted until she happened on the gift shop connecting towards the exit. She had decided against slipping into the shadow dimension because she had no way of knowing how spread out Atlas' troops were. The moment she entered the colorful store her gaze immediately gathered at the casual reading 'The Stars' newspaper beside the kid's aisle, and then two other warm wearing tourists chatting at the cafe. _Watchers._ There was also a black wearing security guard she had never seen before standing at the center of the entrance. Already there was a small crowd gathered around the area, and if Blake had any faint hopes that this was all just a fluke a tourist quickly refuted it,

"We need to get to Melford Sound right now or we'll miss our cruise! Just how long do we have to stay here?" a young man complained.

"I'm sorry sir, but we have orders to lockdown this area. Please remain here until the operation is complete."

The poor man's face immediately turned purple at the impassive reply, but in the end he nodded and stomped back to his family's side. Surprisingly, the rest of the crowd looked completely nonchalant or at worst impatient. It wasn't an uncommon sight in Atlas to see soldiers lockdown places or disrupting daily activities militaristic purposes, so what seemed like a gross violation of freedom to most foreigners were just another part of life for Atlesians. Blake frowned and tried backing up, but already the watcher noticed her and she had to stop. She took a gamble coming here instead of retreating where she came from - that place was most likely compromised anyway - and now she found herself trapped like a rat. Slowly she made it towards a chosen spot by the magazines corner; hidden so that the watchers couldn't see what she's doing, but not so hidden that it would draw attention. Setting herself snugly on the floor, Blake then picked an interesting looking magazine - _Ultra Spiritual Life: Ten Commandments of a Spiritual Meat Eater_ \- and began to read, murmuring,

"What should I do next...?"

* * *

A pair of green and red dressed women trudged down spiraling steps before exiting an archway into sunlight.

"I can see you came prepared, but you really should have known that a five foot two girl wearing a Gothic dress and a cape does not make you look like a Huntress. It doesn't even make you look credible." Weiss said while pushing the bridge of her spectacles.

"How did you know that Atlas is coming?" Ruby ignored the pointed remark and asked with a hint of urgency.

"Did you miss the part where I talked to you about an android?"

"Just answer the damn question!"

Weiss shrugged in a grandiose manner, "When your rescuer attempts to hack into the most secure military communications network in the world and fails, it isn't hard to imagine the worst. And if you're wondering why I didn't stop her, it's because I didn't believe her when she told me she's the world's first sentient automaton, up until the point the light literally went out of her eyes. My apologies."

 _I should've dumped them._ "Huh. I guess Penny's not omnipotent after all. What's your plan now?"

" _My_ plan? My plan is to drop by my wine cellar, empty a bottle of _Quilceda Creek 2012_ , drown myself in a bubble bath before sinking into a bed soft enough to swallow me whole. But since I just woke up from a coma no less than twenty four hours ago, I am sure it is faulty somewhere. What is _your_ plan?"

She did not answer. Weiss couldn't see it at the front, but Ruby's expression took a turn for the dark. Had she been anyone else but Weiss Schnee, she might've believed the story. But there was no point forcing the issue now especially since they're in the open. The duo quickly reached a towering, three meters tall stone arch part of the dome's five entrances and walked in. Along the way, Ruby noticed that many people were pointing fingers at her, but before she could figure out why a blue uniformed security guard sitting on a bench gave them a wave and said,

"Good afternoon, Snow! I see you've caught the squirrel, eh?"

 _Squirrel!?_ Ruby's lips twitched. She had her answer. Weiss smiled politely and replied,

"Guess I did. Next time, you should try a gentler approach. Children are sensitive after all."

" _What?_ I am _not_ -"

"Anyway, I'm bringing her to the office. It'll take a while to contact her parents, so please tell Marriah to take over for a minute, please? Thank you."

"The word will be sent. Take care of yourself and don't run off again, kid!"

She never learned his name, or she would've written it down on a paper, stuck it to a strawman and blow off its head. Contrary to Ruby's hopes, the humiliation did not stop there as nearly every explorer they ran into, young and old and even a few of those whom she threatened earlier with Crescent Rose joined in the parade to poke fun at her. As if sensing her killing intent, Weiss finally stopped by a locked steel door along the hallway, watched both sides for no men before slotting in a key and ushered Ruby into the room. Going against her normal instincts, Ruby did not even look at her surroundings as she raised a chilling smile at Weiss Schnee and singsonged,

" _Children_ , is it?"

Weiss shrugged again - _she seemed to enjoy doing that a lot_ \- and replied, "Your appearance is not mine to blame."

"How do these people know you?"

The abrupt turn in subject did not faze the former queen, "I got myself an interview."

"Why?"

"Because an identity makes hiding easier. Look, we don't have time for this. There is Penny," Ruby looked towards the direction Weiss was pointing at and saw exactly the cheerful android sitting on top of a stone chair - now she noticed that they were in some sort of an ancient council room - although she didn't look cheerful right now with her irritating smile reduced to a thin straight line and eyes lightless without power, "and here is privacy. Now, please, _our_ escape plan?"

"You must be _crazy_ if you think I would -"

 **KABOOOM!**

* * *

 _Thud! Thud! Thud! Creak! **CA-CRASH!**_

" _Pthu_ ," Yang spat out at the ground while admiring the pile of fallen bodies before her, " _That_ will teach you not to sneak up on me."

She was lucky. The bags and luggage she carried were easily three or four times her width, so even though the Atlas scout caught her completely off guard, he couldn't actually get a good grip on her neck and missed the chance to choke her out - _or kill me. I can still his fingers on my neck, dammit._ After she knocked him out three more scouts arrived most likely noticing the commotion through their comm, but without the element of surprise they were no tougher than a Beowolf. It took literally seconds to dispatch them all.

If only the same could be said about that deafening boom that nearly rocked her off her feet. Yang watched the beginnings of a black smoke trailing off the foundation of eastward tower, and felt her knuckles tightened, "What can I do, what can I do..." at this point she no longer felt like going back to the cave. One she didn't know if there were more eyes on her, and two was that Atlas had reacted far quicker and ruthless beyond her imagination. From her standpoint she could see normal tourists being rounded up with guns to their faces; shocked and on the verge of uncontrollable terror if not for the the seemingly endless queue of Paladins marching in from the main street. This wasn't right. No matter how you looked at it these soldiers had come with _extermination_ on their minds _,_ not capture. Thinking fast on her feet, Yang slowly shifted her gaze until it fell upon the fallen soldiers before wondering aloud,

"Maybe they have something that can help me..."


	8. Chapter 7 - KABANG! Or is it KABOOM! ?

**Author's Note: Another day, another chapter.**

* * *

James Ironwood, General of the Atlas Army and Headmaster of one of the four largest Huntsman Academy in the world, is a powerful man. His official appearance was always that of a white overcoat, red tie and single white glove. In private, the only difference would be the abandonment of his overcoat, and a metal hip flask appearing far more often on his gloved hand. A soldier's habits were hard to change, even when he had risen to a position where a certain degree of flexibility was expected beyond his steely nature.

Today, he broke routine and sipped once from the metallic container before putting it back into his coat. He checked with the pilot sitting beside him,

"How much longer?"

"ETA in thirty seven minutes and six seconds, sir."

He resisted the urge to take another sip. Hard lines creased the top of his forehead more so than usual, as the cogs behind his eyes whirred in high speed. It was eleven fifty seven am when he received the email. Anonymous, lacking a body or subject but attached with a single video, it should've been caught by autonomous filters or his secretary's scrutiny long before it reached his mailbox. He downloaded the attachment and played the video, not because he was curious but because it was his duty to verify every email that made it to his desk. But he had not expected it to be a sizzling bomb big enough to blow decades of effort into dust. Since then he had ordered Ciel Soleil to command every unit in the vicinity to surround Fort Knox, while he excused himself from a Vacuo summit and flew his entire fleet home at full speed.

"We should be in range now. Connect us to Second Lieutenant Ciel."

"Yes sir."

Since they were at the very edge of a reception zone, it took about thirty seconds before Ciel appeared on display,

"General."

"At ease, lieutenant. What's the status?"

Just as he finished speaking, a loud explosion could be heard a quarter of a second before the volume was off. Remarkably, Ciel's expression did not change one bit; merely directed her glance sideways for a few seconds to confirm the situation before a crackle signaled her to speak again,

"A hundred and eighty three out of two hundred and one civilians have been safely quarantined at the gift store, the central dome and car park. I intend to question them first, but now evacuation may have taken first priority. Sir?"

Ironwood nodded, "We'll save the questioning for later. Have Search Platoon 3 and 4 relocate all secured civilians to A4-1 Base, and complete the evacuation process as soon as possible. Within reason, you are permitted to use lethal force against anyone who resists arrest."

Ciel's pupils dilated, "Does that include the White Rabbit, sir?"

The General hesitated for a second before nodding curtly, and Ciel saluted, "Yes sir. Ciel Soleil, out." He then looked out of the window and felt a sudden ache down his stomach.

Sacrifices had to be made.

* * *

"Man, I hope this works." Yang checked her handiwork one last time before running away.

* * *

Blake stared at her discarded magazine in a rubbish bin disappointingly and grunted when someone pushed into her from the back. A minute ago a terrific explosion had rocked the ground on their feet, dashing all plans of vent sneaking or highway robberies right out of the window. Hardly anyone was fazed - a huge majority of the visitors were Huntsmen, and some even looked like they were itching for a fight. However, while the tourists' reactions were mostly harmless, the Atlesian military's was not. Almost immediately the white armored soldiers rushed in, and while they didn't exactly have everyone hands down on the floor, to be clumped up in a tight group under the bright sun with armed men watching from every direction was not in the least comforting. The cruise guy who complained earlier, she noticed in bemusement, looked like he was about to implode.

But then the hatch of a long, six wheel military transport ten feet away from a group slid open, and Blake narrowed her eyes,

"This group's ready. Everyone, please enter two by two into the transport and we will bring you to safety."

"What? We can leave on our own; our cars are right there!"

"This is ridiculous. I need to fetch my son. He's only five -"

"- And I spent FIVE HUNDRED Lien on the cruise! FIVE HUNDRED! You have _no_ right!"

She bit her lips. While it seemed most convenient to just leave with the mass and slip away later, she had a terrible suspicion they won't turn up somewhere civilian friendly. _I have to leave_ now, _but I need a distraction._ She looked at the soldiers, the Paladins at the car parks, the dark-skinned, blue hair girl in front of the store who seemed like the person in charge, the transports, the guns and finally the explosives at their waists. A plan began to form in her mind.

* * *

"What was that!?"

Even with her natural balance Ruby had to lie flat on the ground to avoid slipping, and what was a few seconds felt like an hour before the shaking finally stopped. She saw Penny's body lying sprawled across the ground, although the quake was so mind consuming at the time she didn't hear her fall. To her side Weiss Schnee climbed back to her feet and patted the dust off her suit, saying,

"In the worst case scenario that was an Atlas torpedo exploding against the base of the hill, so we should experience an aftershock and be buried in less than five seconds."

She waited for five seconds, but nothing happened. Ignoring Ruby's furious glare she continued, "Guess it's not a torpedo. But still, in the interest of staying alive we should get out of here pronto. Do you agree?"

Ruby muttered, "I am starting to think that you're an imposter.", to which Weiss Schnee immediately replied with odd gratification, "Thank you." The former Executioner felt her blood boil but stopped herself at the end. She fished out her scroll and tapped it a few times. Nothing. Ruby then tidied her skirt before striding towards the door,

"I'm leaving. Penny's too heavy for me, so someone will have to do the grunt work."

"You're a harsh leader, but don't worry." There was an odd sizzling noise and shimmering white light, and Ruby swung around to see a huge, glowing Beowolf carrying both Penny and Weiss on each shoulder. Her pupils dilated. So this is the Schnee family's 'Magic'? "I can be a good follower too."

"Why are you showing me this?" Ruby asked curtly. Weiss looked surprised for a second before raising an unsettling smile,

"Why not? I'm not aware that I'm showing you anything extraordinary, am I?"

 _Shit. Did I just expose myself?_ "Nothing. You can't change it to a human form or something? It's going to draw a lot of attention." Ruby answered as casually as she could while taking a peek on both sides of the hallway. The moment she confirmed that there was no people, she bolted out of the door and ran for the exit closest to her escape point.

"Unfortunately, the strength of my summon depends on the form it takes. That and it's always going to glow white, so it'll draw attention anyway." Out of the frying pan, into the sun. She took the shortest path towards her destination and ran with lightning speed. _Did she say that to gauge my reaction?_ "I just remembered. You _still_ haven't talked to me about your plan."

"We're heading towards Tower C."

"Isn't that a dead end?"

"Huh? I thought you came over from that side."

"You mean, did we attempt to cross a thousand meter chasm when there are aircrafts that we can just sneak aboard?" there was a long pause right until they reached the tower steps, "No."

"You had Penny." Ruby retorted while increasing the pace. She could see soldiers everywhere on the ground right now, and while they had been lucky not to be spotted thus far it was only a matter of time. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you. Why did you come to Fort Knox?"

"You're saying like it was my idea."

"Am I wrong?"

"No. But Penny wanted to get into Atlas, and I was brought up with a hostage situations manual as my play toy." Weiss paused for a moment before saying in a low tone, "It wasn't a choice. There are only two reasons I would set foot on this place: either it's a life-or-death situation, or the day I burn this Kingdom to the ground."

Considering the sarcastic but cooperative attitude Weiss Schnee had assumed since their meeting, Ruby was surprised to hear such venom dripping from her voice. She was about to prod some more when she looked outside and saw something unpleasant.

"Shit."

"Now isn't that just _rude._ "

"No. Look."

Ruby pointed out of an open arch and towards the cliff where she and Belladonna first made the descent. It was originally empty; now it had a white-and-gray object swaying at the very top with the wind. Weiss squinted for a few seconds at her side before she murmured with a rare hint of uncertainty, "I believe that is an Atlesian soldier's uniform...?"

For some reason, Ruby felt a twinge lifting the corner of her lips, "Hmph. Only fifty points for poor handicraft, but at least the message is clear. We have to go for plan B."

"Okay, what do we do?"

"You tell me."

Abruptly Ruby stared at Weiss with such steeliness before the white hair woman shivered and took a backward step. Then she lifted a bitter smile,

"Calm down. I did have an escape plan of my own, but the reason I didn't say it earlier is because it didn't qualify as one in my mind. If you consider all the odds even crossing a bottomless chasm might be safer."

Ruby said bluntly, "I will be the judge of that."

"Alright then," Weiss smiled wider, "But first, I must confirm: do you have claustrophobia?"

* * *

Everything had been going so well.

When Ciel Soleil received the urgent order an hour, fifteen minutes and forty nine seconds ago, she had immediately commanded the troops to surround Forever Mountain (A cheesy name selected by a sappy reporter. She had no idea how it passed the election, but there was a time she had looked strongly for bribery evidence), specifically Fort Knox with every troop that were available within a thirty kilometer radius. It took thirty minutes for a sizable force to be gathered, eleven to sort them out and assign respective tasks, and another twenty one to manage the final reinforcements and place the entire area under their control.

The first problem began when the scouts reported a suspicious 'blonde teen' snooping around the top of the hill opposite of Fort Knox. She hadn't forgotten to post men on the opposite side of the canyon just because it looked impassable - she knew of a few shapeshifting crooks, and if it wasn't for the fact that game hunting was strictly prohibited in Atlas she would've ordered every animal on sky or land to be shot - so her natural response after hearing the report was to order an immediate takedown and questions asked later. Because she had to settle a commotion among some disquieted tourists, it took her five minutes before she realized that her scouts hadn't reported back, then a minute and twenty five when a private had rushed up to her and handed her a binoculars. She had walked up to the edge he was posted on, looked towards the opposite bank and saw one of the strangest and most blood-boiling view ever in her life: A standard private's uniform poled with a makeshift branch at the highest point of the cliff. The first response she made was to call for the nearest platoon to secure her vanished scouts. The second was to strip them of their rank, effective immediately for severely underestimating their quarry's threat level in a top priority mission. The third was to tighten the net and bring in this 'teenager' ASAP, alive if possible for some serious questioning, and dead if necessary. Oh, and to remove that effing uniform before the press could take a picture.

Just as she finished giving her last order, General Ironwood had called in to check on the mission's status, which was not a problem at all until an unexpected explosion erupted somewhere two seconds later and sent her entire crew scrambling. It was both a blessing and an _utter embarrassment_ that the tourists were the ones who looked completely unfazed. The moment she ended the communication with the General, she ordered a status check on the eruption to be delivered to her five minutes tops and shifted her full focus into evacuating the civilians. She understood very well that, while the explosion gave her the perfect excuse required to forcefully detain every person on site, the same too applied to the culprit. _White Rabbit. She has a lot to answer for all the things she has done._ But none of it was her current concern. Her mission was to capture the White Rabbit by any means necessary, and she would ensure that it was executed with the utmost precision, no matter the obstacles that were thrown at her. She looked at the grumbling crowd one last time and was about to order a full scale invasion of the fort.

That was when the trouble _really_ began.

 _BANG!_ "Huh? Uhh... UuuaahhhhhhHHHH!"

Ciel turned towards the commotion. She saw a screaming civilian holding his leg and a dumbfounded soldier staring at his smoldering rifle, and immediately recognized she had a brewing disaster in hand. But before she could do anything two more shots rang out followed by two horrified grunts, and a scream broke through the air,

" _Noo!_ They're going to kill us!"

"What the fuck? We did nothing wrong! We ain't gonna get killed without a fight!"

The chaos that ensued was instantaneous and uncontrollable. Knowing that this was a famous spot for Huntsmen she had wasted precious time to gather her forces just in case of the worst case scenario, and she was still confident that given enough time, her thousand men army of soldiers, drones, and war machines would be able to subdue the unruly crowd with minimal casualties. The problem was that her units were spread out, and the Huntsmen were gathered in large packs doing their damndest to break out of the encirclement. Ciel experienced a terrible regret. _Why didn't I confiscate their weapons earlier? Because it would potentially cause an unnecessary international conflict that even our most 'honorable' and 'decisive' commanders aren't willing to face. Now, it would_ absolutely _happen with us looking like the baddies until a full scale investigation is carried out and conspiracy theories are abound. So be it._

The reason Ciel Soleil was entrusted her role despite being a second year student at Atlas Academy was exactly this. She might not always make the best choice and has an OCD for timing, but she never hesitates when it comes to decision-making, "Squad A, B and C to subdue all bodies I repeat, all bodies and open fire at anyone who resists. Squad D and F standby and let no fish through the net. Paladin Squad Alette, Razor, Cohar, you have permission to fire at will. Private Bahamut, do you copy?"

It took three seconds before the reply came, "Yes, ma'am!"

"You were enlisted under 13th Bravo Platoon for two years and three months. You have committed no acts of disobedience during your time of service, nor do you have a criminal record or any similar tendencies. So tell me, what on Remnant possessed you to shoot a defenseless civilian?"

"No, ma'am! I did not -" the soldier paused for a moment as if rearranging his thoughts, "I know what it looks like, and the shot had indeed come from my rifle. But I swear, I never turned off the safety and even if I did, the power was by default set to lowest Stun level. I know that it is at Lethal now, but I could submit my rifle's autonomous record and -"

"I believe you." Ciel cut him off, "What do you remember of the past minute? Did you see, hear or feel anything unusual before or after the misfire?"

"I..." The dark-skinned woman shot two Huntsmen attempting to charge her in the crotch during the five seconds she waited for his answer, "I think I do. It wasn't really unusual by itself, but before the shot I remember a pair of golden eyes staring at me. I mean, they're all staring at us, but for some reason her eyes - that's right, only _her_ eyes caught my attention."

"That is good, Private Bahamut," and she meant it, because she knew countless others who were about as aware as a brick with the memory of a goldfish despite consistent training, "Do you remember anything else? Her appearance, the direction she's headed?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I -"

But her mind was already elsewhere. More accurately speaking, she saw the exact pair of eyes her soldier had mentioned gazing towards her before disappearing behind a wave of bodies. Ciel gave chase immediately, but when she arrived she could find no one. She also did not notice the wisp of shadow beneath her feet before it dissipated entirely.

* * *

 _" I'm a celebrated workingman, my duties I don't shirk_

 _I can cut more Dust than any man from Haven to Rem York..."_

It was a calm day at Edmonton Bay Hospital. Jaune Arc pressed his face into the pillow while feeling the old timey classic rattle through his brain. On the opposite side Pyrrha Nikos laid peacefully on her bed, open emerald eyes signaling that she was awake but was so deep in thought she was barely responding to the doctor's inquiries. Their reports were good. Despite the rather gruesome way they entered the hospital, both were declared fit enough to be discharged next evening latest. So it was unfortunate that neither Invincible Girl nor Vomit Boy looked in any way enthusiastic about the notion.

"Ww sehvaifd."

"Hmm?"

Jaune lifted his face off the pillow and muttered, "We survived."

"Mm hmm. Survive may be a bit exaggerating it though."

"Have you seen my _face_ when I got in? I swear that blonde bimbo did it on purpose."

"That's a rude thing to say about a girl, Jaune, even if you did look like you've grown ping pong balls."

"Ha! Says the girl who's grown half a football on her head?"

They laughed. Even though both Jaune and Pyrrha knew their hearts weren't as carefree as they pretended to be, the act of trying alone was worth something.

"So, what are we gonna do?"

"Well, did you report to Professor Glynda?" Pyrrha woke up at two this morning and thus missed out quite a bit.

Jaune groaned, "Ugh, she makes it sound like I should have precognitive abilities."

"Hmm hmm, no comment," Pyrrha laughed quietly before turning suddenly sober, "I guess we should go back then."

"... You think?"

"It's the logical next course of action. If we try anything silly Professor Glynda will tear us apart."

"Ouch. Yeah, that wouldn't be great."

It surprised him that Pyrrha would even imply trying something 'silly', but in the end he could not deny the face value of her words, or the stark reality before them. The mere thought of Glynda _Bad_ witch's punishment sent shivers down where it must not be said, and if the nurse was to be trusted he had woken up at least three times screaming, "Not the nuts!" It was of course absolute untrue, never mind the fact that his neighbors were giving him strange looks, or the doctor's kind offer for psychological therapy...

... But was that why he became a Huntsman? To become a meek little student scoring good grades pleasing the Professors at every turn for his 'future'? If so, then why did he even attend Beacon in the first place? Why didn't he just stay with his family and become the farmer they only wished him to be?

The song had reached its end, and after a brief advertisement the newscaster cut through, "Howdy servants! This is Jonas Sandberg from _Iceberg_ News bringing you the latest news of the afternoon! I think that went well, yeah peeps? Today I will talk about a car accident at 13th Avenue, _ooh_ dead kittens in Canary River, burglary in Row 6; my god, but what is there to rob from those empty cabins!? And... uh, gimme a second. Hey Solar, are you sure this is right? We do joke style news broadcast, sure, but in the midst of style we also have do _real_ news, so... really? Okay. Ahem, sorry folks! In latest news, we also have our good ol' Atlesian military - a thousand of them apparently, ha! - surrounding Fort Knox in attempt to hunt down a red riding hood -"

For no reason at all Pyrrha suddenly perked up from her bed.

"- A blonde bimbo -"

Jaune flipped around so hard he hurt his hips.

"- A pair of... what the *beep*? Golden cat eyes? Dude, Solar, are you _sure_ \- fine fine, damn *beep*, and finally an 'ice queen', because _that's_ somehow _super_ original and _super_ funny for no reason at all, har har har har. Oh, and there's also an armed riot after a soldier allegedly shot a civilian. Okay cut the broadcast this is absolutely _ridiculous,_ I can tolerate your bullshit from time to time because Atlas as a whole is an even _bigger_ pile of dung, but this is a _billion_ steps too - *beeeeeeeeeeeep*"

The broadcast cut off and switched into another old song, 'Cindy'. Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other wordlessly.

"That was... weird."

"I'll say."

For a long time the duo stayed quiet before they unanimously said,

"Do you -"

"Think that's -"

Both Huntsmen stopped abruptly, and it was Jaune who took the lead, "You know, I actually feel pretty fine despite the bandages."

To which Pyrrha replied with many nods, "My head is clear too. Maybe we can apply to leave like, today?"

Jaune waved his hands, "What? There's no need to go through so much trouble. Our bills are fully paid for, and did you see the face the nurses give me earlier? The sooner we're gone, the better it is for everyone."

"Okay then. Let's take ten minutes to change our clothes, and then we go through the front door...?"

"Pyrrha, Pyrrha, Pyrrha," the blond made Pyrrha laugh by jumping onto the bed while scoffing in supremely arrogant style, "Where's your childhood? Of _course_ we're jumping out of the window!"


	9. Chapter 8 - If Only The Dinos Were Real

**Author's Notes: Things would get very real next chapter.**

* * *

She could not help them.

As Yang sped past trees and snow, she began to feel increasingly impatient by the fact that she was running further and further away from her teammates. Although she wanted nothing better than to fight alongside Ruby and Blake, she had practically no way to reach them in time. Worse, every now and then she could feel tiny rumbles growing stronger and stronger beneath her feet, notifying her that her pursuers were steadily closing in on her. A confrontation was inevitable. That was what she was counting on. Even if she could not help her friends, she could pull some pressure away from them by creating some trouble of her own.

First contact began with a beam and a golden blast crossing each other's path with only centimeters to spare. The unmanned, disc-like drone crashed into the ground in a ball of flames, and Yang zipped past it before taking down two more drones in the same fashion. _I guess questions first is getting outdated these days._ Violet orbs paid close attention to the undergrowth before her, and the moment she saw movement to the right she leaped into the air just in time to miss a dozen of potshots before retaliating with her own firepower. Normally a fool's move, reorienting mid-air was made easy by the trees providing cover all around her before she cracked down on a machine-gunner and moved on. She ran in a straight line and even risked occasional checks on her compass to ensure she's heading towards the right direction. The only real way to escape an encirclement was to put it behind her.

If only it wasn't all too predictable.

"... Man oh man, if this isn't proof that beauty attracts jealousy, I don't know what is."

Yang said out loud after skidding to a stop. In front of her loomed a quartet of Paladins; menacing man-like war machines which gun-arms and gun-legs and gun- _chests_ were pointed directly at her direction. It still would've been manageable if she poured every effort into escaping, except that the human and non-human soldiers ten times the Paladin's number sealed even that faint hope. _Well, I guess this is it._ Yang raised her arms and said,

"So uh, truce anyone? I leave you alone, and you don't bother me?"

After a faint ripple of puzzlement and sneers later, a captain-like soldier with red stripes yelled, "You have no warnings. Lay down your weapons and get down right now!"

"Look, guys, I don't think you understand," Yang slowly dropped her hands before acting to lie herself on the ground, "I'm not trapped in here with you. You're -"

Abruptly she charged forwards leaving behind a rain of bullets, and with a distorted screech slammed her fist into the dead center of a Paladin. The giant white machine suddenly folded inwards like a book; alloy screeching and bursting with inhumane pitch before flying backwards into a ball of flames. The world alit by fire was somehow deathly silent as Yang roared at the stunned soldiers,

" _YOU'RE_ TRAPPED IN HERE WITH ME! Also to those who interrupted my epic quote, YOU DO NOT INTERRUPT AN EPIC QUOTE! EAT LEAD!"

* * *

On one hand, they got lucky. While they were contemplating a way to get back inside the dome, a large number of Atlesian troops on the grounds had suddenly pulled back towards the entrance with controlled urgency. The unmistakable sounds of not-so-distant gunfire and explosions reminded her of a turf war she once got involved by accident.

"What was that?" Weiss asked while peering from a corner.

Ruby replied before backtracking down the stairs, "Our chance. Let's go!"

The journey down the spiraling stairs was just as uneventful as the first. Now that there were less soldiers, instead of the do-or-die charge she adopted when she ran towards the tower, now she could adopt a stealthier approach and after making sure that her enemies weren't looking, dashed from cover to cover so quick that even an onlooker would've noticed only a red blur. Weiss, her summon and Penny weren't too far behind themselves, and within the short span of two minutes they had reached the last wall opposite of the dome entrance they exited earlier. Ruby peered at the shut wooden door in front of her before taking a deep breath. _Here goes nothing!_

But it would seem that their luck had finally ran out. Her dash towards the door was actually harmless, but when Ruby pushed against the oak she was surprised to find that it wouldn't budge. What the hell? It's locked! Ruby pushed harder a second time to no avail, and since it was a completely exposed exit with not even a hand rail to crouch behind, inevitably, she was discovered.

 _"- Get down!"_

Two different voices of different undertones shouted at once. Instead of complying to either one, Ruby brought down her scythe to deflect the bullet out of harm's way, then slamming the head directly at the center of the door. As it exploded inwards in a shower of wooden splinters, Ruby swung her scythe in a short arc to shoot the man unconscious before shouting at Weiss,

"Go go go!"

* * *

Blake peered from behind the lean top of a tower, feeling her lips curling into a frown. If she had ever had any illusions that this was all just a terrible coincidence, the view before her just shattered that completely. Not far away below her was the front entrance of Fort Knox which she had slipped away from earlier; now filled with a swarm of colorful explosions and screaming men. That was the second least of her problems (the first one being Ruby's whereabouts, and the third one Yang's). What troubled her was that she could pick out easily hundreds of figure at nearly every direction she looked, be it soldiers, vehicles, drones, robots, even bigger robots and so on. The only thing she didn't notice were air transports - _wait, is that a... civilian helicopter I'm seeing? Reporters? They sure work fast_ \- either because this rock couldn't land too many of them, or they were worried that their quarry might try to grab one and escape. Unwittingly, they were half right - she had been planning to hijack a couple to use as distractions or live bombs to smoothen her escape, but now she had to come up with something new.

 _And fast._ She looked downwards to see a trail of soldiers pouring into the busted entrance Ruby and Weiss had disappeared seconds earlier, and sprung a devious smile. She found her after all. No matter how feeble their relationship was they did share an agreement, so it was now her turn to show a little bit of sincerity. Blake fished out three Dust cartridges from her back, pondered a moment before pocketing two. Once clipping it into Gambol Shroud, she closed her eyes and began summoning her Semblance. One by one the black shadows split away from her back, and they gathered at her designated blind spot until there were seven of them. Only then she opened her eyes and leaped down to the hidden balcony and fired at each of the shadows. She watched the Dust bullets sink into her clones before wiping the sweat off her forehead with a sigh. The task had taken much more energy than she anticipated.

If she did this the usual way she could assemble an army in the blink of an eye, but then these tainted shadow clones would not be able to incorporate any Dust at all. She didn't understand it herself, but it would seem that she could still summon her old powers completely free from her new ones as if they were two separate energies. The trade-off was that she had to consciously separate the two powers in half, kind of like peeling one's skin away from the flesh. It was both difficult and painful, and she had a feeling that it was only going to get worse in the future. _I thought this was a one time thing, that once I had succumbed there was no turning back. It still is, but I guess there are still parts of me that needs to be changed gradually into something inhumane..._

The black hair girl shook her head and lifted her right arm. In an instant the seven clones leaped down from the roof and dashed towards their respective spots, whereas Blake jumped back up to her original position and waited patiently for the fireworks to happen. She had sent two directly below her, one to the entrance, another one to the car park, two to where the fight was the thickest and the final one to the commander-in-charge. She noticed the dark-skinned woman from the beginning; a natural tactician barking orders and coordinating defenses with a brilliance unmatched by anyone she had met short of the top Players in Bamborsa. _But that is all you are; a tactician_. The smile on her face was cruel yet tragic. Her clones suddenly increased their running speed towards their unsuspecting - _wait, I think she noticed it. But it's too late_ \- targets. She clasped her fingers together.

* * *

She knew it was Blake the moment she saw fire pouring in from behind their backs.

More accurately speaking, she caught a glimpse of a similar figure but was literally on fire diving into the center of the Atlesian soldiers before exploding like a suicide bomber. Its combined force with a second explosion on the outside was so powerful that it caused the entrance to collapse completely unto itself, effectively cutting off any pursuers coming this way, assuming they weren't all dead already. _I would say good job if the explosion hadn't gotten us both. It better not be on purpose._

They were lucky Weiss reacted in time to put up a wall of ice to keep the flames away, but the shockwave still knocked the wind out of both of them. Ruby climbed unsteadily back on her feet, tasting blood inside her mouth but deducing that it wasn't serious enough to warrant a rest. She looked at Weiss, who was looking seven different kinds of pissed-offs,

"Still alive?"

The former Queen coughed smoke out of her mouth before hissing, "What. In the Ice Spirit's name. Was that."

"Someone's handiwork that you'll get to yell at the perpetuator once we get out of this alive. Now let's go before the whole place comes down on us."

It was probably an exaggeration, because even after the collapsed entrance the rest of the structure, as far as Ruby could tell stood as strong as ever. But what if there was a third, a forth, or even a fifth explosion? She wasn't waiting to see that happen. Within seconds the duo plus one beast and a robot had run past the council room they hid in earlier before switching onto the main hallway. The hallway was a full circle, and their destination lies five exhibition rooms away and a left corner leading towards a secluded fire exit. Had this been a normal tour, it wouldn't take them more than three minutes to walk the entire way. But this whole day had been a marathon of unusual affairs, and so they ran right into the Atlesian vanguards that were closing in from the other entrances. Even with Ruby's speed she barely jumped away from her cover before a rain of lasers blasted it to bits. Swinging her scythe in a continuous '8' pattern, she yelled,

"We're gonna force our way through! Can you block the entrance?"

Not only a wall of ice answered her question immediately, azure spikes suddenly burst from every corner to sweep the surprised soldiers right off their feet; pinning them against the wall, the floot and even the ceiling. Ruby barely caught a glimpse of a snowflake rune vanishing at Weiss' feet; her casting speed and power far exceeding what Yang had told her when they took her down. _Hmm. Something to keep in mind._ But at this moment Weiss' display of prowess was nothing but reassuring, and they quickly slipped through the spikes and ran into the dinosaur exhibition room.

"- Wait, why are there dinosaur exhibition at this fort? Isn't this a historical site?"

Ruby asked while staring wide-eyed at a robotic velociraptor snapping its jaws at her from behind a glass panel. Weiss rolled her eyes and answered with a condescending tone,

"You know about 'Journey to the Center of Remnant', right? Apparently the 3rd Atlesian leader was so infatuated with the idea of prehistoric Grimm given flesh he populated every historic site he could find with models of these fictional creatures. To put it shortly, it got stuck."

"Huh."

"... Are you thinking about fighting them?"

"W-what are you talking about!?"

"Your face is as open as a toddler's."

"Shut up!"

The dinosaur did not come to life - _would probably be worse than Penny's pets even if they do... but dinosaurs!_ -nor did the soldiers poured in suddenly from the other side, so they passed through the room without incident. Almost immediately after they were met with strong resistance, but they plowed right through them with the same tactic: Ruby would draw fire and deflect any bullets that rained at their direction, while Weiss take them all down with a seemingly endless repository of ice Magic. It was a smooth ride even when the tactical force at the final bent said fuck-all and took out a rocket launcher. This time, before Weiss could react Ruby burst in with lightning speed to plant a foot right at the offender's nose and sliced the rocket launcher in half. She then lashed out in a sweep of bullets and took down all ten men surrounding her, just as Weiss caught up and sealed the final entrance. She could hear the white hair girl praising,

"Not bad."

"Hmm. Is this it?" Ruby answered noncommittally. They had finally arrived at the fire exit, and without a word the duo switched positions with Ruby facing the hallway and Weiss tinkering who-knows-what with the... _fire extinguisher?_ The redhead shook her head and and kept watch on both sides of the T-junction. Luckily for them, no enemy appeared during the thirty seconds Weiss took to crack open a secret compartment, type in a 20 characters password into the holographic keyboard and display that appeared above it, pull out the safety pin before finally pressing the handle to unfold a secret door leading with stairs downwards into unseen darkness. The former Queen raised an inviting hand as Ruby rushed over,

"Welcome to my escape route. A polite 'thank you' is required before you may proceed further."

"Thank you. This looks pretty modern." said Ruby without a hint of gratitude. Weiss looked a bit miffed but she replied,

"That's because it is. As a general rule, even a decrepit fort like this one would have an escape tunnel installed in case a need ever arise."

"And you are sure we won't be cut off from the other side?"

"Didn't I tell you earlier? Ironwood is most likely the one commanding this lockdown, and he is an arrogant prick who believes he has the strongest and most secure army in the entire world. He would not expect us to know about this secret tunnel, much less the administrator password that unlocks it without alerting their system."

"What if he posted men there anyway? He doesn't need to know everything to leave no holes unplugged."

"He won't. But even if he did, _she_ will have awakened by then," Weiss pointed a thumb at a still immobile Penny with a confident smile, "No communications network can be sustained without Dust, and no wireless connection can survive the underground. Once we're down there, whatever this tin-can is connected to _will_ be terminated, and she _will_ wake her from this catatonic state and cloak us to safety. Anymore questions?"

Ruby looked towards the bottomless darkness, then at Penny, then at Weiss with a conflicted look, "How can you be so sure? Everything you said is just an assumption."

"And they will stay that way unless I act upon them and make them true. Now let's not waste anymore time. If there's one thing you're right about; the longer we wait, the more likely it is that our enemies would realize our plan." With that, Weiss Schnee stepped through the door and began running down the stairs, her back glowing white like a guiding light amidst the darkness. Ruby clenched her scythe tighter for a second, then transformed it back into Rifle Mode before running after Weiss. The door then folded back into its original position with a slick 'click' and vanished as if it was never there.


	10. Chapter 9 - Spiral

**Author's Notes: I have... nothing to say actually. Well, maybe one thing: Enjoy~**

* * *

Yang felt like a trapped bear.

On one hand, anything that she could get her hands on were dead. Well, more like beaten-to-half-dead humans and very dead machines, but anything that stood in the way of her fists were crushed to immobility. On the other hand, her enemies were getting smarter. After the first minute, every ground soldier had learned to keep their distance and shoot from afar, and the Paladins kept pounding the ground beneath her with exploding ammo in an attempt to keep her off balance and disoriented. But the real threat came from the drones that she initially dismissed as fodder. Yang didn't have nearly half the combat instinct Ruby has, but she had always been a lucky girl, and it saved her from certain death when she leaped unsteadily out of a smoking crater, only to miss a hidden bullet zipping past her eyes. Two more bangs missed her neck and her torso as the blonde frantically fell to the ground, and fired a shot towards the woods where she thought the shot came from. A relieving explosion followed, but the crisis was far from over. _You know what, trapping them with me suddenly sounds like a bad idea. I better get out of here before they turn me into Swiss cheese!_

But it wasn't so easy. Although the the Atlesian army stationed here were small they were well trained and coordinated; more than enough to run rings around her. It didn't take long before Yang realized that she was slowly but surely getting pinned down at a particular location, endless hails of gunfire not firing at but around her to cut off every escape route. Every time she charged at a particular direction - _dammit, they've cut off the path towards the caves completely_ \- the gunfire became so concentrated and even mixed with a few missiles that she had no choice but to fall back. But the more she was forced backwards, the tighter the encirclement became, and the blonde realized then that if she backed any further she would eventually be cornered and shot like a rat. She crouched down with a deep breath and counted until three. A blue laser took off the top of the rock Yang was hiding behind, and it was at that moment Yang made her final charge.

The first wave, as usual, were the hail of bullets. Yang was surprised she managed to spot instantly the ten _motherfucking_ bastards who were hiding behind trees rotating suppressive fire at her, but she didn't complain her good luck and ran straight at them. Three months ago she couldn't have made it without taking a few hits to her body, but thanks to Ruby's training, she easily zigzagged through the hail of bullets and within seconds reached forty paces before them. This was where things started to get tricky. The soldiers began retreating backwards while spreading out in a cone, fully intent on pressuring her from as many directions as possible. At the same time, a Paladin had walked out of a bush from her left and fired two missiles at the ground in front of her. _Oh no you don't._ With unprecedented calmness, Yang aimed two shots with her left arm to explode the missiles in mid-air. Then, as a pair of golden rings appeared around her wrists, Yang arced her arms backwards before swinging left and right to inflict two massive walls of flames that burned everything in its path. It was as tall as a tsunami and as deadly as a volcano, and not accounting the heat the sheer amount of visual impact was enough to scatter the annoying worms and even the Paladins into disarray.

But if the humans were terrified, the AIs were unfortunately not afflicted by such qualms. Even though she couldn't see it, she could hear multiple bangs ringing from a distance, piercing through her wall of flames and zipping past her face. Yang narrowed her eyes. She had thought that these combat drones operated with the use of heat sensors - at least, that was what some of the warbots in her home were equipped with. But this was the Nation of Science's robots she's fighting against.

As the walls dissipated, Yang finally put the open ground behind her and reentered the woods. The change of terrain was a double-edged sword - nature provided her more cover so that the drones couldn't snipe her as easily as before, but at the same time it slowed her down enough that the giant war machines easily plowed right through trees and stones to catch up to her. At this point, Yang was getting frustrated. _Just how many are these things!? They can't be sending their whole army after me, can they?_ The ground soldiers were up again - a natural thing considered that her flames never reached them - and just as Yang ran past a tree she felt a bullet clipping her shoulders and dropping her to the ground. Despite her Aura blocking it completely, she couldn't resist a painful groan,

" _Aah_ fuck, c'mon, just a bit more. They're getting desperate!"

Yang pushed herself upwards and forced her tired feet to run. A pair of AK-200 jumped into her direct path and shot at her, and she punched one right through the center and broke the other's neck. She repeated more or less the same thing when four more androids jumped out from behind their cover to stop her, and this time her desperation gave way to actual hope. They _are_ getting desperate, or they would not have sacrificed their androids like this just to slow her down. Suddenly there was an inhuman groan from above, and Yang looked up to find the Paladin falling down on her head while discharging every weapon in an attempt to crush her into a paste. Yang smiled. Her eyes turned crimson. "I've been waiting for you. Eat - _this!_ "

Ultimately her Semblance wasn't the ability to generate fire, but the power to generate even greater power by taking wounds from her enemies. Yang jumped into the air and met the Paladin head on. She endured the bullets with sheer Aura, shot the missiles before they could come close, and her golden flames grew stronger and stronger until she swung out in an uppercut that sent a swirling fire tornado piercing right through the top half of the war machine. She could see the mech pilot staring at her with his jaw on the ground, even forgetting to eject until she winked at him before landing on her feet. Her knees gave way as she crumbled to the ground, feeling exhaustion seeping through every inch of her limbs. _That one really took a whole lot out of me. But it's not over yet._ Yang rolled sideways and dodged a sniper bullet before getting back up to her feet. _All the big fellas' are finally down. Now to get out before the little ones decide to swarm -_

Her iris turned into pins. She tried to move, but it was as impossible as the black airship that bore down upon her like the shade of a demon king. A hatch slid open from below, and in an instant she felt pain exploding from her shoulder, stomach and her leg. The last thing she saw was the visage of a steely man pointing a silver revolver at her forehead.

He pulled the trigger.

* * *

The moment her clones exploded, Blake leaped down from the tower - it had to be at least ten stories high - bounced off a couple of bricked header before landing lightly on the top of the western wall, facing the chasm. _Time to go._ In retrospect, the plan was simple. Distract the enemy with massive fireworks and run like hell. It was also insane because she didn't _need_ the distraction - even with a helicopter on the sky no one knew or even saw her, so she could have just slipped away and with her experience and Semblance, there was little chance that she would be caught.

But this was not a solo mission, and she was the one who suggested searching here in the first place. She hadn't lost so much humanity that she forgot how to take responsibility. Blake took a few steps towards the handrails before frowning to a stop. She covered her face with shadows. _She_ did _see me._ It took her a fraction of a second to split away from her shadow, and a fraction later her shadow was exploded by a trio of bullets that rang from the side. A dark-skinned figure wearing a blue beret emerged from the main staircase leading up to the wall at her left. She held a standard assault rifle blue eyes glittering with determination,

"Report, I have found a perpetrator. Requesting free hands to lock down Section D ASAP. Suspect, you have three seconds to surrender or face lethal force. Three."

Blake did not wait for her to finish before firing Gambol Shroud at the enemy while breaking into a run. The girl, apparently a woman of her word, did not shoot immediately. Instead she fished out a combat dagger with her left arm and deflected every shot with ease, all the while running after Blake while still holding her rifle with one arm. "Two." Feeling tension building beneath her stomach, Blake split off four shadow clones with basic autonomy to block the woman's path long enough that she could jump over the wall, but once again her enemy shocked her by flipping into the air, severing two clones' neck with one overhead slash and kicking one more into another after landing. It was a kind of combat efficiency that Blake could only dream to achieve. "One." Blake jumped anyway. Beneath her were a floor of trimmed grass flowing along a highway, but if she could cross to the opposite side and into the hill, she could disappear very easily. She was confident in her abilities to react towards any attacks, even if her enemy happened to have a homing Semblance. In truth, Ciel did not have a homing Semblance.

She just had something far deadlier.

"Zero."

Blake heard gunfire from behind her, and unleashed her shadow clones immediately. It was daylight but she was still able to create up to twelve tainted shadow clones at once to cover her retreat. At first, she was winning. It was true that her clones were incredibly weak to Dust bullets, but they still made a formidable meat shield when clumped together. But it didn't last long; in fact they held on barely for more than a few seconds when a couple of bullets whizzed past her cheeks. The dark-haired girl looked backwards in shock. _How did she -!?_ It was then something even more unbelievable happened. Out of nowhere a rifle no, _tens_ of rifles appeared out of nowhere before her, their muzzles pointed at her direction before firing in perfect unison. She had to suffer a few shots - holding back painful screams behind her teeth - before finally shadow dashing out of the way.

But her enemy wouldn't allow her room to breathe. This time the shots rang from her back - well, rang from both her front and back, and in such rapid succession that if she didn't know better, she would've thought a whole platoon firing down at her - that it was impossible to defend against, much less dodge out of the way. Soon there were _hundreds_ of rifles hovering in midair and shooting at her from every direction. "You will not escape." somehow she heard her through the incessant ringings in her ears, her clones destroyed the instant they appeared and her escape routes cut off before she could even start towards them. _What the hell is this Semblance!?_ Blake screamed inside her heart. _She just keeps materializing guns out of nowhere! I can't - "Arghhh!"_

No one can weather the rain untouched, much less a rain that morphed into a waterfall. When a countless number of blaster shots slammed bodily into Blake's exposed back, she crashed unceremoniously onto the ground. Her enemy took no chances and with a final volley, broke through the final vestiges of her Aura and instantly littered her whole body with holes. She couldn't feel the pain, but it made her even more terrified. She couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't breathe. Miraculously, her head remained intact, but she soon learned that it was no coincidence,

"Ciel reporting, enemy down, requesting immediate extraction and life support. I've avoided her vitals, but she may go down in less than sixty seconds. What? No, I couldn't hold back. She was very tricky. Be quick."

The radio buzzed off, and she heard footsteps walking until it was right in front of her. She felt a muzzle pressing against the back of her head. Why did it feel so familiar? She heard her speak,

"You had your warning."

* * *

Ruby's shoulders were tense throughout the entire way, and she could not for the life understand that if Weiss couldn't turn the lights on if she could hack open this secret tunnel - "This is _not_ hacking! And what do you think we'll happen if this whole place lights up and starts drawing power?" - but as the former Queen had promised, they ran into no obstacles or enemies whatsoever. The final truth would be revealed when they reached the end of the tunnel, but so far it was a smooth escape, so smooth she almost couldn't believe it. Usually her own escapades involved Grimm, guns, and a healthy dose of danger -

 ** _BATHUMP_**

"- Ruby?"

She skidded to a stop. Before she realized it her heart was beating fast, her breathing was shallow, and her neck was covered in a sheen of sweat that could've been mistaken for the results of exertion, except they weren't there before. Not until she was assaulted by this strange feeling that something really, really bad just happened.

"Do you... feel that?"

"Feel what?" Weiss asked impatiently before stomping her foot. Apparently evercalm princess wasn't as calm as she appeared. It made Ruby feel just a bit better, "Come on! We're almost there."

"... Right. Sorry."

They resumed running through the darkness.


	11. Chapter 10 - Maw

**Author's Notes: Soliloquies on the prowl.**

* * *

Ruby fully expected to find Beowolves, Ursas, soldiers, Paladins, or even a Demon lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce on them at any moment. However, the reality was that their journey was a peaceful one - Too peaceful, in fact. Trouble usually found its way to her regardless of how many precautions she took. So, when there's a war/battle being fought and she wasn't in the thick of it, she actually felt uncomfortable. Impatient. It was weird. I wonder how Yang is doing. She should be on route to our rendezvous point by now.

At the end of their short fifteen minute jog was an unexpectedly large room. The ceiling was barely tall enough to accommodate a Paladin, but the metallic tile-set seemed to spread endlessly across the floor. Their only light source was the glowing Beowolf leading at the front, which was only bright enough to illuminate up to five feet away from them, the rest being complete darkness. Trusting in her instincts, Ruby thought that this place could possibly be even as big as the dome above her.

"What is this place?" Ruby asked as she followed Weiss. The Queen cloaked in white had slowed down and was watching the tiles beneath her feet intently because she no longer had a linear path to guide her. The darkness before them made it seem that this would certainly be a long walk.

"An emergency shelter. This is a military-built escape path, so naturally there is a resting spot to accommodate either troops or refugees."

"Here?" Ruby disbelievingly said, "Under this hill that seems as if it's about to collapse at any moment?"

"Don't jinx it." Some frowns did not require an expression, "Also, you're underestimating the strategic value of this place. It's easy to defend and it's also the perfect place for a last stand against the Grimm or other enemies."

"And why is the Grimm not an enemy again?"

"All Grimm are killers, and some had lived long enough to outskill and outsmart nearly every man alive." Ruby froze up a little, but thankfully Weiss did not seem to notice anything, "But thankfully, most Grimm are instinctual and stupid. They don't normally attack unless you're close or feeling especially awful; which makes them jerks really but that's besides the point. However, a human can, and will, scheme against you from ten thousand miles away if they found an opportunity to rob you for a fortune that was in actuality a penny because they did not do their homework. So no. Grimm and enemies are not the same."

Ruby looked surprised for a moment, but then she nodded, "You have a reason to be angry."

"You think so? I must be slipping then. A queen should never reveal her emotions unless it is for a purpose."

"Do you really believe that?"

"I do." the former queen slowed down and looked at Ruby, "Do you have a problem with that?"

Ruby shrugged, "No, not really. In fact, I used to follow the exact same philosophy."

"Really? What made you change your mind?"

Ruby opened her mouth to answer, but then she stopped herself. She was surprised by her own words because she actually believed it. Barring the year she spent living together with her Master and the few months she spent recuperating at Mrs. Amberson's, the majority of her life had been spent making one cold calculation after another. After all, you did not need to become a master in expressions and emotions when you've frozen your heart in ice.

"I met... a friend."

Weiss suddenly increased her pace before stopping in front of a support. There was a blue sign board above with various labels such as 'Pilot's Sector', 'Administration Office', 'Laboratory', an entire list of 'Crowd' A to Z et cetera and most importantly, Exit A, B and C. The moment Ruby read the board and nodded the queen immediately walked past it and continued towards Exit B, three kilometers away. The familiar darkness returned.

"A friend." Weiss said.

"A friend." she affirmed. Weiss shot her a strange look before turning back towards the front.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. Yes." Ruby looked at her in surprise. This was the first time she contradicted herself. "I've only known you for a while, but you... don't seem like a person who would say something like that."

"You don't know me."

"I don't. But I'm trained to recognize the signs the first time. Let's talk about your friend." Ruby never liked talking about herself, but as if she had eyes on her back Weiss changed the subject before Ruby could shut her out, "Who is she? Is she part of the team that came to rescue me?"

"And Penny." Ruby added automatically. A few seconds later Weiss sighed, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are eventually meeting up with your team, right?"

Ruby finally admitted, "She's the one who gave us the warning. Yang's the name."

"Okay, Yang, Chinese I presume. So, why the reluctance?"

"I'm not comfortable talking about others." Ruby said curtly so that Weiss would catch the hint. She ignored it.

"Well, you better get started then, because even though I agree with you that it's a necessity in life. Otherwise you going to create misunderstandings that you might regret for life."

Suddenly Ruby had flashbacks about the fire. The scream. A lone figure vanishing behind the mist. The sharp retort behind her teeth suddenly died before its wake, "I am not the most expressive person. I would do anything to achieve a goal because the demerits are often negligible in the larger scheme of things. I still do. But... little by little, she... changed me."

"Was it like a drama?"

"You watch drama?"

"Hey, just because I was a queen doesn't mean I don't have time to myself, okay?" Weiss complained before muttering so silently that Ruby almost missed it, "Sure, it was to decide which show had the proper social influences before releasing it to my people, but still, I _own_ my time."

Ruby decided not to comment. Instead, she slightly adjusted the rifle behind her waist and continued, "I suppose it was. A little. Like I said I wasn't really expressive so I was quiet pretty much all the time. But her personality was the exact opposite of mine, so things got pretty bad for a while there."

"You could've parted ways. I mean, no need to force yourselves together and sour a friendship, isn't it?"

"It was our first mission, and for the record, we did."

"Um."

"Yes."

"I was going to say -"

"Yes."

"Sorry." Weiss didn't turn around, but she probably wasn't sure if she could keep up the right face. At least her tone sounded sincere. For a few minutes they proceeded in darkness while Ruby's eyes wandered about the ceiling, the lamps, the floor, the darkness, and finally the symbol behind Weiss' back.

"Do you have a friend, Weiss?"

"..."

"Hello?"

"Sorry." This time Weiss turned around completely and gave her a measuring look. For the first time her eyes lost its piercing gleam and warmed just a little. "I think that's the first time you call me by my name."

Ruby thought back for a moment and was surprised to find that it was true. "Huh. Do you want me to call you something else?"

"No. It's fine. Weiss, is fine." that last phrase seemed to be directed at herself, but she had turned back to the front before Ruby could deduce anything, "To answer your question, no. Maybe there were a few names that I would declare had I been younger, but the past is the past." Weiss paused for a while and started just as Ruby was about to reply, "You think that I'm a stereotype now, don't you?"

"Actually, no. At least you don't match any of the stereotypes in my head." Ruby replied.

"Really? I thought the royalty with no friends is pretty common?"

"Unlike you, I really don't watch drama. Now then, onto the next question."

"Hmm, well I suppose that's acceptable. What is it?"

"Who is that person on the throne right now?"

 _Tap tap, tap tap, tap, tap, tap._ Weiss stopped. Ruby stopped. The Beowolf took a few steps further until both of them became covered in half shadows. The distance between them was a perfect ten feet, although she hadn't turned around. For some reason Ruby thought that a smile was forming on Weiss' lips, "Is this really the best time?"

"What an odd thing to say, because I'm pretty sure that we're alone in a hidden base that is as desolate as a tomb. Don't disappoint me."

Weiss turned around. She _was_ smiling; a thin and dazzling and mirthful smile that only fools would mistake as harmlessness, "My apologies. It seems I may have underestimated you a little."

"I gave you information." Ruby said bluntly.

The former queen frowned. "Losing your patience already? We had some good rapport there."

"I'm a mercenary," Ruby unleashed Crescent Rose abruptly and placed it lightly against her shoulder, "and I _hate_ working for free. You will answer two of my questions to my satisfaction, or I can't guarantee what might happen next."

"I don't think I owe you anything. After all, you did not save me out of good will, did you?"

"It doesn't change the fact. On the count of three." her right hand gripped onto Crescent Rose's hilt.

"You waste that innocent face of yours on unnecessary cruelty. Or is it the world around you that made you put on such a mask? Never mind." Weiss sighed in mild pity before she shrugged once with open palms, "I agree to your proposal. But do tell me your second question first so I can answer them both at once. We really are running against the clock after all."

"Why are you still alive?"

A different person might have mistaken the question for something else, but when directed against the exiled Queen of Shiva it had taken a different form entirely,

"To answer your first question, she was a second Lieutenant from Atlas, the surrogate daughter of General James Ironwood, and my blood related sister. Her name is Winter Schnee. You may have guessed my next answer, but it isn't a hard thing to guess in the first place, is you?"

She had left the Order for two years now, and maybe that was why she reacted the way she did. But when Weiss lifted the corner of her lips by just a fraction, turning an enchanting smile into one so hateful that the singular scar over her eyes seem to bleed with red, Ruby couldn't help but shiver,

"I'm taking back what's _mine._ "

* * *

\- and her weapon was kicked away just when she was mustering some strength to use it. What a horrific situation. If she heard Ciel's declarations right, she would have less than sixty seconds to make a getaway or suffer the rest of her days in a test tube or worse, converted into a mindless drone who would chant Atlas' glorious name in her sleep. Blake had thought that Adam had realized her guilty pleasure and broke character just to tease her about it, but when he passed her the reports she found that she couldn't laugh. Part of the reason she left him was because of that creeping feeling that one day she would gaze too long into the abyss and turn.

... Now she was so delirious that she wasted precious seconds on pointless thoughts. Blake coughed out painfully a clot of blood and felt the muzzle pressing harder against her head. Not only the bitch was a careful one she was a devious schemer to boot. With her face on the ground and the cold, hard metal pressing from the back any person would have thought that Ciel was standing right beside them and thus present with the opportunity of a surprise reversal. In truth, the dark skinned soldier stood about four feet away about the left direction of her armpit, which was too far and an awkward angle to execute an attack and too close to try anything that might escape her watchful gaze. If she had one such ally to support her she could take a General's head with no one the wiser. She was getting distracted again.

 _Can I take her?_

It was a moot point. She had just reasoned very clearly inside her head that it was all but an impossible task.

 _Can I escape?_

She wanted to say yes despite her injuries - _especially_ because of her injuries, because Ciel had no concept of the uniqueness of her body and thus most likely would underestimated the rate at which she recovers, giving her the one and final element of surprise she would gain in this battle. But it was easily a double-edged sword even when everything else was already against her. She did not have time. She really shouldn't think be thinking about time. In the middle of a flat grass there was nowhere to hide, and the closest cover was a full street and a half away. She didn't think she could do the impossible three quarters dead when she had failed when perfectly functional. There was of course, the final resort wherein she opens a gap right beneath her and slips into the Shadow Dimension, but even that had a couple of problems: One, she had never had to go inside while she was about to die, so whether it would even accept her entry was a gamble she dared not wager. Two, even if she did the Shadow Dimension was literally a different plane of existence that just so happened she had the ability to cross forth and back, and although she had never run into one she could perceive somehow that there were _things_ inside there that in her current condition much rather not need to face. Finally, there was the time limit. With every bit of her dark powers being channeled into healing her riddled body, she wasn't sure how long she could stay inside before being booted out unceromoniously like a miserly beggar in a high class restaurant. It would be exceptionally deadly if she revealed her ability and could not hide behind it for less than a second.

 _This is it_.

She could hear and feel the rumbles of footsteps running towards their direction. Had it been sixty seconds already? What a terrible use of time if the only conclusion she could surmise from it was eternal suffering.

 _The term to use here as a Player would be Game Over or GG. Elliot would be horrifed, and May would scoff before secretly weeping at a place I can't see._

"Excuse me, ma'am. Team B-11 was taken down by the White Rabbit and the other target and I had to -"

"They will be fine, but the sixty five seconds you dallied might have killed a most important suspect. It's a miracle she's still alive. Sixty eight."

"Y-yes ma'am. I will perform the medical procedures right away."

 _Adam... he'll probably be happy to see me go. He hated humans. He hated traitors even more, and I was once closer to him than anyone else in his world._

"How does it look?"

 _Squelch._ "This is... strange. The bullet holes are obviously there, but this feeling -" _Blurp. Blurp. Squelch._ "The depressions are shallower than I thought -"

 _"- Even if Blake may be a monster in body, I will believe that she has a human heart. Even if Blake herself thinks that her life isn't worth living for, I still think she deserves a chance."_

She acted. The first arc took off the medic's neck, so as to ensure further discoveries remained forever behind bulging eyes and a hushed gasp. If Ciel had known of her powers, she would've destroyed Gambol Shroud instead of kicking it away. The second attack was a straight toss at the dark-skinned bitch's face, which the latter easily sidestepped and retaliated with a hundred rifle shots and a surprising roar; he could have been someone who was important to her. Good, this wasn't even the beginning of the pain she would eventually return to her tenfold. Blake took a crazy risk and stopped every bit of regeneration inside her body - if a bullet lodged itself in her head, even if she survived she would be as helpless as the day after Ruby Rose 'killed' her - before slipping right into the dimensional hole that she had been prepping to do since the beginning. In a life-or-eternal-suffering situation Blake dared not leave things to chance even if she had to expose her greatest power. Almost immediately she appeared at the point she had set, which was the gun katana she had flung out and ignored largely by her opponent because she had believed it no longer a variable. Behind Ciel was also the one spot that would take a second and a half for Ciel to recover from her shock, turn around, and shoot her down like a dog. Again, that was probably not something she wanted to think about right now. On another note Blake could now confirm that she could _not_ stay inside the Shadow Dimension for long when she was nearing death, which made it infinitely less useful than she thought but was something that she had to think about later, if she somehow got out alive. She ran with all of whatever remaining strength she had left towards the cliff edge; the one and only place in which she could truly be free of the influence of her enemy.

A volley clipped her in the shoulders, then a few more in the back. Blake stumbled, but persisted and jumped when she was still seven feet before the edge.

A bullet went right through the center of her head.

She collapsed and rolled and almost skidded to a stop. Ciel had moved exceedingly fast and made a grab for her flailing legs. She missed.

Then, she fell over the edge and plunged through the fog as thick as white curtains into the welcoming hands of a black maw.


	12. Random Notice of Procrastination!

Okay. Life has been busy. Not so busy that I can't continue this fanfic admittedly, but busy enough that my creative brain feels like dying everyday. I've been translating Chinese web novels to English for a living (Single Player Only, Star Rank Hunter and Spirit Realm) as of late and my schedule is to translate at least 2 chapters - normally 3 - of 1.5k to 3k word length every day. Moreover, I'm also taking a Master Degrees in Translations and sometimes the juggle gets really, REALLY crazy.

So I'm procrastinating. Yep. Bet you so familiar with the word that you can read it backwards. Sorry. I promise that I'll try to get that chapter out this week or the next. I've been trying to envision that epic encounter between Ironwood and Ruby in my head but things just doesn't seem right even today; probably because I've been thinking too much of everything. It's going to be a super long chapter, most likely more than 5k words, because I plan to wrap up this arc - as in, Chains of Glass definitely still has a loooong way to go, but this particular princess saving arc is gonna end real - in either one or two chapters max.

For the readers who haven't ditched this novel yet, apologies for the delay, but this fanfic ain't dying yet. And with Volume 4 running at the moment, I can finally write something about that elusive Atlas without completely guessing out of my spine juice, which admittedly is a bit dry and metallic and grim and not that tasty in the first place. Stay sharp!


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